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2015 Supreme(Mad) 1220
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRAS
R. MALA, J.
A. Parthasarathy & Another – Appellant
Versus
State represented by Inspector of Police & Others – Respondent
Criminal Revision No. 1323 of 2014 & M.P. No. 1 of 2014
Decided on: 05-03-2015
Advocate Appeared
For the Petitioners:V. Gopinath, Senior Counsel for L. Ramalingam, Advocate.
For the Respondents: R1, Bhasuran, Special Public Prosecutor, R2 & R3, No Appearance.
Headnote:
Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 - Section 13(2) r/w 13(1)(d) - Indian Penal Code - Section 120B r/w 420, 468 r/w 471 – Criminal Procedure Code - Section 239 - B.Tech examination conducted - Course of investigation – First Information Report - Counsel appearing for petitioner would submit that on source information CBI has registered a case and after investigation has filed charge sheet against petitioners herein along with A1 who is a professor in Pondicherry Engineering College and A2 who is an Assistant Professor in said College under Section 120B r/w 420, 468 r/w 471 IPC and under Section 13(2) r/w 13(1)(d) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 - Case of prosecution is that A1 was nominated as Chairman of Evaluation Board of Pondicherry University during and A2 was nominated as examiner to evaluate answer scripts pertaining to B.Tech examination conducted during November - A3 first petitioner herein is a IIIrd year B.E., student of Pondicherry Engineering College is beneficiary and A4 is father of A3 - Relevant portion of charge is usefully extracted hereunder - That during course of investigation involvement Assistant Professor Pondicherry Engineering College a III rd year BE mechanical student of Pondicherry Engineering College came to light as such they were arraigned as accused in this case – Held, Now CBI Inspector shown court Answer Scripts on subjects Quality Reliability and Safety Engineering, Design of Machine Elements Heat and Mass Transfer Electrical and Electronics Engineering Mechatronics and Control Engineering System and being asked court state that except Answer Scripts Mechatronics and Control Engineering Systems in all other answer scripts candidate wrote subject name on front page of answer script in an ordinary way whereas in answer scripts pertaining to Mechatronics and Control System Engineering candidate wrote subject name with Bold Capital Letters and underline subject name of Mechatronics in double line - Court believe that this candidate wrote Mechatronics and Control System Engineering subject names as mentioned above with intention so that examiner could easily identify his answer scripts and also examiner could identify dummy numbers allotted for him - Answer Scripts of Control Systems and Engineering and Mechatronics were examined and there is every possibility that he could identify Answer Script as well as dummy allotted to candidate - Moreover systems adopted in Pondicherry University that a single dummy number is allotted to all subjects of a particular candidate - Special Public Prosecutor also drawn by attention to documents - In documents LD-7 and name of subject were written in bold letters in order to identify answer script - As far as other documents are concerned they were sent to forensic department and for handwriting expert opinion - Only after obtaining expert opinion charge sheet has been levied against accused 1 and 2 - As regards A3 and A4 are concerned A3 is the beneficiary as per statement of L.W.5 and documents LD-7 and LD-8 along with LD-3 to LD-6 there is prima facie material to frame charges - Hence court of opinion that prima facie case has been made out for framing charges - Criminal Revision dismissed
1. The present Criminal Revision has been preferred for setting aside the impugned order dated 14.08.2014 in Crl.M.P.No.425 of 2013 wherein the discharge application filed by A3 and A4 under Section 239 Cr.P.C came to be dismissed.
2. The learned counsel appearing for the petitioner would submit that on source information, the CBI has registered a case and after investigation has filed chargesheet against the petitioners herein (A3 and A4) along with A1 who is a professor in Pondicherry Engineering College and A2 who is an Assistant Professor in the said College, under Section 120B r/w 420, 468 r/w 471 IPC and under Section 13(2) r/w 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. The case of the prosecution is that A1 was nominated as Chairman of Evaluation Board of Pondicherry University during the year 2007-2008 and A2 was nominated as examiner to evaluate the answer scripts pertaining to the B.Tech examination conducted during November 2007. A3, the first petitioner herein is a IIIrd year B.E., (Mechanical) student of Pondicherry Engineering College is the beneficiary and A4 is the father of A3. The relevant portion of the charge is usefully extracted hereunder:
“2. That during the course of investigation the involvement Shri.Karumari Subbaraiyudu S/o.Shri.K.M.Gandhi, Shri.Balasubramanian S/o.Nammalwar, Assistant Professor, Pondicherry Engineering College, Puducherry, Shri.Parthasarathy S/o.Shri.Aroumougame, a III rd year BE mechanical student of Pondicherry Engineering College, Puducherry and Shri.Aroumougame, father of Shri.Parthasarathy came to light as such they were arraigned as accused in this case.
3. That Shri.Parthasarathy, a student of Pondicherry Engineering College having registration number 253170334 appeared for IIIrd year BE examination conducted by Pondicherry Engineering College in the month of Nov. 2007 and wrote examination on the subjects 1) Design of machine elements-1, 2) Heat and Mass Transfer, 3) Quality, reliability and Safety Engineering, 4) Power Plant Engineering, 5) Electrical and Electronic Engineering and 6) Control system Engineering and Mechatronics.
4. That the Pondicherry University has assgined dummy number 1730 to the answer scripts of Shri.Parthasarathy. The answer scripts of Shri.Parthasarathy were evaluated at Pondicherry University during the period between 09.01.2008 and 19.01.2008 by various examiners including Shri.Balasubramanian, Assistant Professor, Pondicherry Engineering College, Puducherry and marks were awarded in accordance with the answers written by Shri.Parthasarathy except the answer scripts evaluated by Shri.Balasubramanian. The evaluated answer scripts were under the safe custody of Section Officer, Examination Wing, Engineering stream, Pondicherry University.
5. That after the examinations is over Shri.Parthasarathy and Shri.Aroumougame met Shri.Balasubramanian, Asstt. Professor and Subbaraiyudu, Professor, Pondicherry Engineering College, Puducherry and hatched a conspiracy in Puducherry to cheat Puducherry University in the matter of inflating marks of Shri.Parthasarathy who wrote examination during Nov 2007 on the subjects viz., Design of Machine Elements-1, Heat and Mass Transfer, Quality, reliability and Safety Engineering, Control system Engineering and Mechatronics and make him to pass in the examination.”
3. During the evaluation process, A2 abused his official position as professor/examiner, fraudulently and dishonestly awarded 70 marks out of 80 marks and 69 marks out of 80 marks for the subjects Control System & Engineering and Mechatronics respectively. The examiner who had evaluated the answer scripts had awarded only 21 marks out of 80 marks for Control System & Engineering and 38 marks out of 80 marks for Mechatronics. Further on the final day of evaluation, the first and second accused by abusing their official position managed to enter the safe room of Pondicherry University examination wing, where the evaluated answer scripts were kept unde
