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2005 Supreme(Guj) 450

Gujarat High Court
Judgename :C.K.BUCH
BHIKHABHAI PRAGJIBHAI PARAJAPATI - Appellant
Versus
STATE OF GUJARAT - Respondent
CRIMINAL REVISION APPLICATION 883 of 2004
Decided On : 07/13/2005

Advocates Appeared: BHARAT T.RAO, L.R.PUJARI, VARSHA BRAHMBHATT

Headnote:

Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 – Section 357 – Negotiable Instrument Act – Section 138 – By filing present Cri. Rev. Application, petitioner -accused has assailed legality and validity of judgment and order of conviction recorded by Jt. JMFC, in Criminal Case and confirmed by ld. Addl. Sessions Judge, vide judgment and order while disposing Criminal Appeal and Cri. Rev. Application on various grounds as mentioned in the memo of Cri. Rev. Application – Held, Basic argument of ld. Counsel appearing for petitioner on this point, are found contrary to concept and object of section 357 of Crpc and Scheme of Sec. 374 respondent/w Sec. 386 of Crpc and scheme of Chapter-17 of NI Act – So, it would not be proper for this court to admit Revision Application and entertain same for same of admitting it and same requires to be dismissed – Conviction is for offence punishable under section 138 of N. I. Act – Trial Court should always think of awarding compensation to be received by complainant in exercise of the powers vested in the Court under section 357 of Crpc – Court is not impressed with arguments advanced by ld. Counsel appearing for petitioner and ratio of decisions referred to above, would not help petitioner as same would not apply to this case considering facts of present case – No merits in present Cri. Rev. Application – Application Dismissed (Paras 8, 9, 10)

( 1 ) HEARD ld. Counsel Mr. SM Sojitwala for ld. Counsel Mr. BT Rao for the petitioner, ld. APP Mr. Pujari for respondent No. 1and ld. Counsel Ms. Varsha brahmbhatt for respondent No. 2.

( 2 ) BY filing the present Cri. Rev. Application, the petitioner -accused has assailed the legality and validity of the judgment and order of conviction dated 04. 05. 2004 recorded by ld. 3rd Jt. JMFC, Kalol in Criminal Case No. 2639/ 1995 and confirmed by the ld. Addl. Sessions Judge, 7th Fast Track Court, Mehsana vide judgment and order dated 20. 12. 2004 while disposing Criminal Appeal No. 31/2004 and Cri. Rev. Application No. 97/2004 ( common judgment in both the proceedings), on various grounds as mentioned in the memo of the Cri. Rev. Application. The ld. Addl. Sessions Judge was dealing with the criminal appeal filed by the present petitioner as well as criminal revision application filed by the original complainant against the impugned order of ld. JMFC and pending the said proceedings, the substantive sentence imposed by the ld. JMFC was placed under suspension, but after hearing the parties, the ld. Addl. Sessions judge dismissed the appeal and allowed criminal revision application and ordered the petitioner to pay compensation in exercise of powers vested in the Court under section 357 of Crpc and in view of the scheme of NI Act, of Rs. 88640/ i. e. the amount equal to the amount of cheque. 2a It is submitted that both the Courts below failed to considered one important aspect that the cheque was not issued to satisfy the debt or legal liability. It is also argued that no statutory notice was served on the present petitioner and, therefore, there was no formal reply to the said notice. It is also argued that the ld. Trial Judge has erred in imposing penalty of Rs. 5000/ and ld. Addl. Sessions Judge ought not to have awarded compensation of huge amount of more than Rs. 80,000/.

( 3 ) UNDISPUTEDLY, there are business transactions and certain material was purchased from the complainant and the petitioner had not paid the amount as per the say of the complainant. In view of the Scheme of Sec. 138 of NI Act and in light of the oral evidence led by the complainant, version placed by the accused that the cheque could not have been given in the year 1995 because there were no transactions between the parties after 1991, is not believed. All the relevant aspects have been discussed at length by both the Courts below and it is found that the cheque was given in response to the genuine commercial transaction and the same was against the debt and legal liability. The judgment is based on positive findings based on material on record and there is no element of either perversity or illegality. It would be difficult for the Court to say that the ld. Trial Judge has failed in considering the documentary evidence produced and the findings are misdirected. The same is the case with the ld. Addl. Sessions judge. This is a case of two concurrent findings of fact and when it does not emerge from record that these findings are manifestly erroneous, the revisional court should not disturb those findings as per settled legal position.

( 4 ) IT is submitted by ld. Counsel appearing for the petitioner that the appellate Court has no jurisdiction to award compensation under section 357 of crpc. In support of this submissions, ld. Counsel has placed reliance on certain judgments discussed herein below;-" (i) Firstly, ld. Counsel appearing for the petitioner has placed reliance on the decision of the Apex Court in the case of Hari Singh v/s Sukhbir Singh and Others, (1988)4 SCC 551. On going through the said decision, this Court is of the view that the same would not be applicable in the present case because the Apex Court has simply observed that in appropriate cases, the order for compensation instead of deterrent sentence of imprisonment would be more justifiable. However, the same should be reasonable. In the said case, the accused was involved in the offe









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