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2004 Supreme(Guj) 566

Gujarat High Court
Judgename :D.H.WAGHELA, R.K.Abichandani
KAMLESHBHAI B.MEHTA - Appellant
Versus
HIGH COURT OF GUJ. - Respondent
S.C.A.3309 of 1999
Decided On : 09/03/2004

Advocates Appeared: D.D.VAIDHYA, J.B.PARDIWALA, NIRUPAM NANAVATI, R.C.KODEKAR, S.N.SHELAT

Headnote:

Criminal Procedure Code - Section 457 - Constitution of India,1950 - Article 235 - Indian Penal Code - Sections 34 and 114 - Petitioner, a former Civil Judge has challenged order of his compulsory retirement by State Government on recommendation of High Court made on departmental inquiry held against petitioner in which he was found guilty of charges of dereliction of duty in making an order on an application made - Criminal Procedure Code for returning oil barrels to complaint - Petitioner had also challenged validity of Resolution passed at Chamber Meeting held ground that it was ultra virus provisions of Constitution of India - Under said Resolution it is provided that on report of disciplinary committee comprising of Hon’ble Judges of Court along with entire record of inquiry including written submissions of delinquent in response to show cause notice for proposed punishment being laid for hours on table before High Court it would become decision of High Court - At outset of hearing Senior Advocate appearing for petitioner stated that did not press for challenge against provisions of said Resolution of Rules of Business of High Court and prayers made in Clauses challenging said Resolution were expressly given up at instance of petitioner - All averments made in that context made in petition were also expressly given up – Held, Supreme Court held that alleged act of misappropriation or conversion could not reasonably be said to be imbued with color of office held by appellants-customs officers - Generally in case IPC official capacity is material only in connection with entrustment and does not necessarily enter into later act of misappropriation or conversion which was act complained of - Even in present case complainant had made serious allegations of Civil Supply Officers abusing their position and at a gun point removing goods and pilfering oil from barrels - This is why Magistrate had directed on investigation Code - It was during that inquiry that was seized by police and therefore complainant filed application for return of since it was not produced before Court pointing out that oil barrels were seized by police and praying that in view of decaying nature of commodity goods be returned to complainant - It was already stated in complaint that Civil Court had granted interim injunction restraining accused persons from treating goods as seized and from preventing complainant from dealing with goods - In this background by order made by Magistrate police report was called and delinquent made order of Code in which he considered contentions raised on behalf of complainant that of seized barrels of groundnut oil was lying in go down of Civil Supplies Department at that it was seized twenty days back and that was likely to decay – Order Accordingly (Para 12)

JUSTICE R. K. , C. J.

( 1 ) THE petitioner, a former Civil Judge (S. D.), has challenged the order of his compulsory retirement by the State Government on the recommendation of the High Court made on 23rd December 1982 pursuant to the departmental inquiry held against the petitioner in which he was found guilty of the charges of dereliction of duty in making an order dated 30th October 1982 on an application made under Section 457 of the Criminal Procedure Code for returning the muddamal - oil barrels to the complaint. The petitioner had also challenged the validity of the Resolution No. 3 passed at the Chamber Meeting held on 26-12-1988 on the ground that it was ultra vires the provisions of Article 235 of the Constitution of India. Under the said Resolution, it is provided that, on the report of the disciplinary committee comprising of the Honble Judges of the Court, along with the entire record of the inquiry, including the written submissions of the delinquent in response to the show cause notice for the proposed punishment, being laid for 48 hours on the table before the High Court, it would become the decision of the High Court. At the outset of the hearing, the learned Senior Advocate appearing for the petitioner stated that the petitioner did not press for the challenge against the provisions of the said Resolution No. 3 of the Rules of Business of the High Court and the prayers made in Clauses 36 (A) and and 36 (G), challenging the said Resolution, were expressly given up at the instance of the petitioner. All the averments made in that context made in the petition were also expressly given up. Brief facts :

( 2 ) THE petitioner came to be appointed as Civil Judge (J. D.) and Judicial Magistrate First Class on probation for a period of two years by order dated 10-12-1981 and was posted at Jamnagar. A Criminal Misc. Application No. 97 of 1982 came to be filed on 19-10-1982 in the Court of the Judicial Magistrate First Class, at Jamnagar, by the Manager of a Trust named Ramdev Oil Mill, of Jamnagar against the three accused persons, who were the officers of the Civil Supplies Department, for the offences under Sections 390, 391, 166 read with Sections 34 and 114 of the Indian Penal Code on an allegation that, on the night between 30-9-1982 and 1-10-1982, at about 12. 30 a. m. , the accused No. 1 alongwith his persons had, under the guise of search and seizure, keeping police with him and without a warrant, given threats and created a spurious search and seizure order. It was stated in paragraph 3 of the complaint, which is in the vernacular, that the Trust had filed Regular Civil Suit No. 863 of 1982 on 1-10-1982 against the search and seizure order made by the accused No. 1 on 1-10-1982 in which the Court had granted injunction in the terms which were reproduced in the said paragraph. As per the said order of injunction issued by the Civil Court, the accused No. 1 and his agents and servants were restrained from implementing the seizure order dated 1-10-1982 and were also required not to treat the stock of goods as seized and were restrained from preventing the plaintiff from dealing with the goods or selling them. It was then alleged in paragraph 4 of the complaint that the accused persons were in the know of the said order of interim injunction dated 1-10-1982 (in fact, it was dated 4-10-1982), passed by the Civil Judge (S. D.) as they were issued the notice of that order. It was further stated in paragraph 5 of the complaint that the accused persons, in violation of the order of the Court, which was known to them and ignoring the law, with a view to harass the trustees and cause them malicious harm, and though they had no reasonable ground, authority or power, committed robbery of 45 barrels of oil while they were being carried in a truck, in furtherance of their common intention and by abetting each other, giving threats at the point of a revolver, and that these accused were pilfering oil from the barrels and appro













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