HIGH COURT OF ALLAHBAD
AGARWALA, J.
State
Versus
Tugla
Criminal Appeal No.934 of 1952
Decided On : 10-02-1955
CRIMINAL PROCEDURE CODE - SECTION 145 - ORDER UNDER SECTION 145(6) - PROMULGATED ORDER - DISOBEDIENCE - SECTION 188, I.P.C. - INTERPRETATION - ORDER UNDER SECTION 145(6) - WHETHER AN ORDER PROMULGATED - HELD, YES.
Fact of the Case:
Respondent filed a suit regarding a house in dispute and applied for a temporary injunction. The civil court issued an interim injunction that status quo should be maintained. The order was served upon Sob Nath two days before he obtained possession from the police. Sob Nath made an application to the Sub-Divisional Magistrate, who had passed the order under S.145(6), for prosecution of the respondent under S.188, I.P.C. on the allegation that she entered the house in dispute again and again in spite of the order.
Finding of the Court:
The trial Court did not go into the question whether the respondent disobeyed the order of the Sub-Divisional Magistrate or not. The court found that there was sufficient evidence to prove that she did. She was ordered not to disturb Sob Naths possession. The possession could be disturbed in many ways; it may be disturbed by Sob Naths being abused and threatened; or by the respondents entering into the house or by her throwing away Sob Naths articles kept inside the house. One of the acts of possession done by Sob Nath was to keep his goods inside the house, and if the respondent threw them away she undid the act of possession. If she quarrelled with him and abused him she certainly interfered with his peaceful possession of the house. She was forbidden to interfere with his possession in any manner. It is not necessary that she should have completely dispossessed or ousted Sob Nath before she could be held to have disobeyed the order. The slightest interference with Sob Naths possession amounted to disobedience.
Issues: Whether an order under S.145(6) is an order promulgated and that its disobedience is punishable under S.188, I.P.C.
Ratio Decidendi: An order under S.145(6) is an order promulgated and its disobedience is punishable under S.188, I.P.C. The word "promulgate" means "to make known by public declaration, to publish; to disseminate or to proclaim". In essence the word connotes two ideas: (1) making known of an order, and (2) the means by which the order is made known must be by something done openly and in public. Private information will not be "promulgation". But the law does not prescribe any particular mode in which an order is made known openly and publicly. It may be by beat of drum; it may be by publication in Gazette; it may be by reading out an order openly in public. Any order announced in open Court will be deemed to have been promulgated, but as the Court room is a place where the litigants are expected to go and the public at large is not expected to be present though they have right to go there if they so wish, the open declaration of the order in Court will be deemed to be a notice not to the public at large but to the parties of the case in which the order is passed.
Final Decision: Appeal dismissed.
DESAI, J.:- In proceedings under S.145, Criminal P.C. started by the respondent herself on the allegation that she was in possession of the house in dispute and some landed property and that there was a dispute between her and Sob Nath about them which was likely to cause a breach of the peace, the Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Soraon on 6-7-1950 held that Sob Nath was in possession of the house in dispute and entitled to remain in possession until evicted in due course of law and ordered the respondent not to disturb his possession in the mean-time. The property seems to have been attached under S.145(4). On the case being decided in favour of Sob Nath, it was released from attachment and possession was given to him by the police on 1-12-50. On 3-11-50 the respondent filed a civil suit regarding the house in dispute. She applied for a temporary injunction and the civil court on 18-11-50 issued an interim injunction that status quo should be maintained.
The order was served upon Sob Nath on 30-11-50 two days before he obtained possession from the police. On 30-1-51 Sob Nath made an application to the Sub-Divisional Magistrate, who had passed the order under S.145(6), for prosecution of the respondent under S.188, I.P.C. on the allegation that she entered the house in dispute again and again in spite of the order. The application was sent by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate to the Tehsildar for enquiry and report. He reported that she lived in the same house and that there was every likelihood of a breach of the peace and recommended proceedings under S.107 of the Code. On receipt of the report the Sub-Divisional Magistrate filed a complaint against the respondent for the offence under S.188, I.P.C.
2. The prosecution examined Sob Nath, Brij Mohan, Ram Padarath and H.C. Manzur Alam. H.C. Manzur Alam deposed that he handed over possession over the house to Sob Nath on 30-11-50 under the orders of the Sub-Divisional Magistrate, that he had subsequently met the respondent and informed her of the fact and of the injunction that she should not interfere with Sob Naths possession. The other three stated about Sob Naths possession over the house and interference with it by the respondent after 6-7-50. Sob Nath deposed that in the month of March 1951 the respondent quarrelled with him, abused him and threw out his articles from the house and that she goes to the house and quarrels with him every eighth or tenth day.
In cross-examination he deposed that she entered into the house five or seven months after possession was delivered to him and that she frequently went to the house subsequently. There is nothing in his deposition which would make it improper to rely upon it. Brij Mohan deposed that the respondent goes into the house and stays there after closing the door. On one occasion he heard exchange of abuses between the parties. Ram Padarath deposed that the respondent enters into the house, and threatens to live in it. He saw her visit the house ten or twelve times, but no quarrel took place in his presence. On one occasion he saw her throwing away utensils. On the first occasion she lived in the house for three or four days.
3. The respondent denied having disobeyed the order of the Sub-Divisional Magistrate. She stated that she never entered the house. She examined Ram Prasad, Shitla Din, Basdeo and Dukhi in defence. They supported her statement. When the house was under attachment during the pendency of the proceedings under S.145 it was entrusted to D.W. Shitla Din. His statement that the house is still in his possession, that it is locked, that he has got the key, that nobody ever took possession of it from him, and that Sob Nath never got possession is a tissue of lies. He himself signed the report prepared by H.C. Manzur Alam about the delivery of possession to Sob Nath.
Ram Prasad is related to the respondent and no reliance can be placed on his negative evidence. He admitted that the police had taken possession of the house
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