JUDGMENT

Barjor Jamshedji Dalal, J. - One Mr. Rashid Ahmad filed a complaint in the Court of a Magistrate of the District of Meerut against Mr. Rich, Manager of the French Motor Oar Company, Delhi, for an offence u/s 408 of the Indian Penal Code. On behalf f the defendant the question of jurisdiction was raised and both the Magistrate and the Sessions Judge have decided it in favour of the complainant. What was complained of was this. The complainant had negotiations with the defendant for the purchase of a lorry of which the body was afterwards made at Meerut. The entire lorry with the body was delivered to the complainant at Meerut when he made over to the driver of the lorry for Mr. Rich a cheque for a sum to cover the price of chassis and insurance not only for the chassis but for the body as well. When the lorry happened to be burnt it was discovered that the body costing Rs. 500 had not been insured by the defendant who was alleged on these allegations to have committed a breach of trust with respect to the money which he received through his driver at Meerut by a cheque. The cheque was drawn on the Dehra Dun branch of the Imperial Bank and was cashed at Delhi.

2. The learned Judge has held that the Meerut Court had jurisdiction both u/s 179 and Section 181(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code. Section 179 runs as follows: "When a person is accused of a commission of any offence by reason of anything which has been done and of any consequence which has ensued, such offence may be inquired into or tried by a Court within the local limits of whose jurisdiction any such thing has been done or any such consequence has ensued." The learned Judge has argued that the thing was done in Delhi by Mr. Rich in omitting to insure the body of the lorry, though, according to the allegation of the complainant, he had received money for such insurance also. The doing of the thing brought into play the jurisdiction of the Delhi Court, but the consequence which was the loss by the omission of insuranceto the complainant was suffered by the complainant in Meerut, and, therefore, the jurisdiction of the Meerut Court did arise. To meet this contention the applicant Mr. Rich's learned Counsel quoted the ruling in the case of Girdhar Das Vs. Emperor, AIR 1924 All 77 by a single Judge of this Court. Personally I am not clear whether the learned Judge desired to rule that the provisions of Section 179 would not apply to a case of criminal breach of trust because there were certain other provisions u/s 181(2) which would apply to criminal breach of trust. I do not remember it to have been held in any case that the provisions under Chap. XXA are all separately independent of one another, and if one of the provisions apply another would not. It is apparent that if such was desire of the learned Judge to make a pronouncement, he has made that pronouncement in conflict with a continuous opinion of this Court ever since 1896. The first case to which my attention has been drawn is that of Queen-Empress v. O'Brien 19 I.A. 111 : A.W.N. (1896) 191. An employee of a Company, the office of which was at Cawnpore, was charged with the offence punishable u/s 408 of the Indian Penal Code. The complainant alleged that B being in charge on behalf of the Company, at a place in Bengal, of certain goods belonging to the Company and being ordered to return the same goods to Cawnpore, never did so, and failed to account for the goods or their value, to the loss of the Company. On this allegation the learned Chief Justice held that the Court at Cawnpore had jurisdiction to inquire into the charge because the consequence of B's acts, namely the loss to the Company, occurred in Cawnpore. Reference is given in the judgment to the provisions of Section 179 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

3. The next is that of 1910, Mahadeo v. Emperor 6 Ind. Cas. 563 : 32 A. 397 : 7 A.L.J. 319 : 11 Cr.iL.J. 372. The case of Qwen-Empreis v. O'Brien 19 A. 111 : A.W.N. (1896) 191 was followed by a