The main legal point established in the judgment is that the likelihood of causing harm or damage to the victims is sufficient for the offence of cheating, even if actual harm or damage is not proven.

The three accused persons in S. C. 22 of 1959 on the file of the Court of Session, Trichur, appeal against their conviction for offences of conspiracy to cheat, cheating, and forgery. Criminal Appeal 348 of 1959 is the appeal by the 1st accused, Criminal Appeal 339 of 1959 that by the 2nd accused and Criminal Appeal 344 of 1959 that by the 3rd accused.

2. The 1st accused is a homoeopathic practitioner living in Trichur and running a dispensary at a place called Mannuthi about four miles from Trichur. The 2nd accused, it is said, was his compounder while the 3rd accused was an agent of the Lakshmi Insurance Company (and later, after life insurance was nationalised, of the Life Insurance Corporation) doing business in the Trichur area.

In 1956 there was a man by the name of Gopalan Nair (but called Kochubala Menon and hereinafter referred to as Gopalan Nair) who was living in the 1st accused's dispensary as his dependant and was generally assisting the 1st accused. This man was in failing health and was not expected to live long in fact he died on 20-11-1956. The case as found by the learned Sessions Judge is that in the middle of 1956 and thereafter the three accused conspired to cheat the Lakshmi Insurance Company and the Life Insurance Corporation by insuring this dying man as a first class life so that, on his death, they could get the sum assured by the policy without having had to pay much more than the first premium. (The charge is of conspiracy to cheat the officers of the Lakshmi Insurance Company and of the Life Insurance Corporation. This, I think, is as it should be, for, to be cheated just as much as to cheat, involves the exercise of mental faculties - the victim has to be deceived and thus induced to act - of which only a natural person is capable. Strictly speaking therefore an artificial person like a corporation cannot be cheated; it is always the human person through whom it functions that is cheated; and, if he also is a party to the fraud, the offence would be criminal breach of trust and not cheating. But, for the present purposes, it would be correct enough to describe the Lakshmi Insurance Company and the Life Insurance Corporation as the victims.)

In pursuance of this conspiracy a registered will - of which Ext. P1 is a certified copy - was obtained from Gopalan Nair, who by this will left all his properties to the 1st accused. Six days later, on 22-6-1956, the proposal, Ext. P2, was got up for insuring the life of Gopalan Nair with the Lakshmi Insurance Company for a sum of Rs. 10,000/-.

This proposal, in the usual printed form, was filled in by the 2nd accused and the signature of the proposer, Gopalan Nair, was forged therein by the 1st accused, the signature being attested by the 2nd accused. The proposal was forwarded to the company through the agency of the 3rd accused who himself wrote down his name, address, and agent's number in Ext. P2 in the column provided for the purpose.

On 27-6-1956, the 3rd accused as agent of the Lakshmi Insurance Company took the 1st accused to Dr. Raman Menon (an authorised medical examiner of the company who has been examined as P. W. 18) at the Government hospital to which he was attached and introduced the 1st accused to him as the proposer, Gopalan Nair. The doctor examined the 1st accused as requested by the 3rd accused and prepared the medical report, Ext. P24, filling in the personal statement therein on the basis of answers furnished by the 1st accused.

In this personal statement there is a declaration to be signed by the proposer and this was signed by the 1st accused as Gopalan Nair. The 1st accused signed also in the place intended for the specimen signature of the proposer, and both these signatures were affixed in the presence of P. W. 18. P. W. 18, as a result of his examination of the 1st accused, certified the proposer as a first class life and forwarded his medical report to the company which, in due course, issued the policy Ext. P61 in favour of