( 1 ) "whether the learned Magistrate trying the criminal cases under Sec. 125 of the Gujarat Municipalities Act, 1963, involving evasion of large scale public revenue [by way of not paying the octroi duty] by the persons importing goods/vehicles within the Municipal limits, can ever be permitted to short-circuit the cirminal trial, illegally racing to register premature acquittal by enmass disposal of cases on the alleged stock ground of complainant being absent when the cases were called out" ? This in short, is the question of quite great importance which though suitably discussed and dealt with earlier by this Court in some of its reported judgments, and yet at the same time, since the same has failed to impress upon the subordinate Courts to the desired extent, it is once again felt imperative to deal with the same at further length, in the overall interest of public justice.

( 2 ) IN this group of acquittal appeals numbering as many as 219, involving more or less identical fact-situation and the law governing the same, it is decided to hear and dispose off all of them together by this Common Judgment.

( 3 ) TO state few relevant facts as far as they are necessary constraining this court once again to raise the above question and further express itself in this regard, the same has to be broadly divided into two categories, viz. , firstly, the particular gross facts and circumstances of the instant cases wherein in as many as 219 criminal cases, premature acquittal came to be recorded at the stroke of a pen on patently unjustifiable ground of absence of the complainant when the matters were called out and Secondly, the general continued, unabated irresponsible trend of illegally throwing away the criminal cases, at the very threshold of the trial in utter disregard to the clear-cut guidelines given on some of quite basic and elementary principle of the procedure to be followed when the complainant or witnesses are found absent on the date fixed for hearing, imparing the image and basic trust of the people in the administration of justice. 3. 1. Taking first the basic allegations in these cases, according to Mr. B. J. Pandya, Octroi Inspector, Godhra Municipality all the concerned respondents herein are alleged to have illegally imported their respective vehicles and/or goods within the limits of the Municipality without paying any octroi dues payable thereupon, with an intention to defraud the Municipality of its legitimate octroi revenue. When the said facts came to be detected from the records of the R. T. O. , the Municipal authorities directed Mr. Pandya to file complaints against the said defaulting respondents as a result of which, 219 criminal cases were filed under Sec. 125 of the Gujarat Municipalities Act, 1963 [for short "the Act"] before the learned Chief judicial Magistrate, Godhra. Further, as alleged by the appellant, out of the said 219 cases, in 210 cases, the respondents were not served at all, and in the remaining 9 cases, though they were duly served, seven out of them did not appear, and therefore, warrants were issued against them. Infact, according to the appellant, all these cases went on being adjourned mechanically from time to time, aimlessly drifting and tossing from one date to another, for as many as 2 to 21/2 years for the reasons unknown - rather may be best known to the learned Magistrate, and thereafter, one day, i. e. , on 31-8-1991, quite abruptly and surprisingly with a stroke of the pen, they came to be disposed off on the solitary ground that the complainant was absent when the cases were called out. It is under these circumstances of enmass illegal disposal of important cases, affecting the public revenue by the learned Magistrate that the appellant has been constrained to file this group of appeals, challenging absolutely illegal, arbitrary, perverse and unjust orders of premature acquittals passed by the learned Magistrate.

( 4 ) MR. Mohit Shah, the learned Advocate