An officer of the Railway Protection Force is not authorized to file a charge sheet for offences under the Railways Act as per the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

1. The applicant accused Sharad Gupta was chargesheeted by the Railway Protection Force (for short, RPF) for commission of offence punishable under S.143 of the Railways Act, 1989 (for short, the Act, 1989) on a charge that on 16.10.1988 he was found involved in purchase and sell of computerized railway tickets reserved for different destinations with a view to carry on such business.

2. The applicant herein abjured the guilt by stating that he has not committed any offence and he has been falsely been implicated in this case.

3. In order to bring home the offence, the prosecution examined three witnesses namely; RP Singh (PW 1, Head Constable, RPF), G. Singh (PW 2, Constable, RPF) and Prince A.K. (PW 3, Sub Inspector, RPF) and brought seizure memo (Ex. P / 1 to P / 3) along with articles on record. The accused did not bring any document on record, but his statement under S.313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (for short, Code) was recorded.

4. The jurisdictional Railway Magistrate on appreciation of record and having found the applicant guilty for unauthorized carrying on business of procuring and supplying railway tickets, convicted him for commission of offence under S.143 of the Act, 1989, sentenced him for six month's R.I. The appeal preferred there against by the applicant was also dismissed accepting the findings recorded by the Railway Magistrate.

5. Questioning the legality, validity and correctness of the impugned order affirming the conviction of applicant for commission of offence under S.143 of the Act, 1989, instant revision has been filed by the accused applicant.

6. Shri Vivek Tripathi and Shri Sunil Sahu, learned counsel appearing for the applicant would submit that officer of Railway Protection Force (for short, RPF) is authorized under S.8 of the Railway Property (Unlawful Possession) Act, 1966 (for short, the Act, 1966) to make an inquiry on information about commission of offence, but he is not authorized to file charge sheet under S.173 of the Code and as such the cognizance taken and conviction recorded followed by sentence awarded duly affirmed by the appeal court deserves to be set aside.

7. Despite service of notice, no one appears for non - applicant.

8. The neat question falling for consideration before this court is as to whether the officer of RPF can file a charge sheet under S.173(2) of Code for commission of offence under S.143 of the Act, 1989 to the jurisdictional criminal court, and if the answer is in negative, then, what relief the applicant / accused is entitled for.

9. In order to consider the question so posed before this court, it would be proper to notice certain statutory provisions contained in the Act, 1989, as well as the Railway Protection Force Act, 1957 (for short, the Act, 1957).
9.1. The unamended S.179 of the Act, 1989 provides as under:
"179. Arrest for offences under certain sections. (1) If any person commits any offence mentioned in S.137, S.141 to 147, 150 to 157, 160 to 162, 164,166,168 and 172 to 175, he may be arrested without warrant or other written authority, by any railway servant or police officer not below the rank of head constable.
(2) The railway servant or the police officer may call to his aid any other person to effect the arrest under sub-section (1).
(3) Any person so arrested under this section shall be produced before the nearest Magistrate within a period of twenty - four hours of such arrest excluding the time necessary for the journey from the place of arrest to the court of the Magistrate.(w.e.f. 01.07.2014)"
9.2 S.34 of the Act, 1