IN THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD R/CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 1239 of 2005 FOR APPROVAL AND SIGNATURE:

HONOURABLE MS. JUSTICE S.V. PINTO: Sd/-

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Approved for Reporting Yes ==========================================================

AMRUTLAL KUNVARJI MEHTA & ORS.

Versus STATE OF GUJARAT ==========================================================

Appearance:

MR SHIVANG M SHAH(5916) for the Appellant(s) No. 2,3 VISHAL K ANANDJIWALA(7798) for the Appellant(s) No. 1 MR. ADITYA JADEJA, APP for the Opponent(s)/Respondent(s) No. 1 ==========================================================

CORAM:HONOURABLE MS. JUSTICE S.V. PINTO Date : 11/02/2026

ORAL JUDGMENT

1. The appeal is filed by the appellants – original accused nos. 1, 2 and 3 under Section 374 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 against the judgement and order of conviction passed by the learned Special Judge, 4^th Fast Track Court, Navsari (hereinafter referred to as “the learned Trial Court”) in Special (Corruption) Case No. 4/2003 on 06.05.2005, whereby, the learned Trial Court has convicted the appellants for the offence punishable under Section 7, 13(1)(d) read with Section 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (hereinafter referred to as “the PC Act” for short). The appellants were sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for one year and fine of Rs. 2000/- each and in default, simple imprisonment for one month for the offence under Section 7 of the PC Act and rigorous imprisonment for two years and fine of Rs. 3000/- each and in default, simple imprisonment for three months for the offence under Section 13(1)(d) read with Section 13(2) of the PC Act.

1.1 The appellants are hereinafter referred to as “the accused” in the rank and file as they stood in the original case for the sake of convenience, clarity and brevity.

2. The brief facts that emerge from the record of the case are as under:

2.1 The accused no. 1 was working as a Circle Officer and the accused no. 2 was working as a Clerk in the Mamlatar Office at Gandevi and were public servants. The complainant - Sureshbhai Ishwarbhai Oad - a resident of Oadnagar, Billimora, Taluka Gandevi, District Navsari was doing the business of collecting sand from the riverbed and had made an application for lease to collect sand from the riverbed of river Ambika bearing plot nos. 836 and 837 situated at village Morli, Taluka Gandevi with the Office of the District Assistant Geologist, Valsad. The concerned office had verified all the necessary papers and forwarded the papers to the Circle Officer, Gandevi for the “No Objection Certificate”. In October 2002, the complainant requested the accused no. 1 to expedite the issuance of the "No Objection Certificate" for the lease. Mahendrabhai Mangalbhai and Manoj Mangalbhai - the brothers of the complainant had also similarly applied for a lease and they had also requested the accused no. 1 to send the necessary "No Objection Certificate" to the concerned Office of the Geologist. The accused no. 2 demanded an amount of Rs. 1500/- each for all the three applications and in all an amount of Rs.4500/- was demanded by both the accused stating that all the applications will be proceeded together and the complainant would have to pay an amount of Rs.4500/- as illegal gratification if he wanted the "No Objection Certificate" to be issued. Subsequently, the complainant and his two brothers once again met the accused no. 1 and at that time the demand had increased to Rs. 5300/- out of which Rs. 2000/- was for the accused no. 1, Rs. 3000/- was for the accused no. 2 and Rs. 300/- was for the accused no. 3. The complainant did not want to pay the amount of illegal gratification and he went to the ACB Police Station, Valsad and the complaint of the complainant was registered.

2.2 The Trap Laying Officer called the panch witnesses and took an amount of Rs. 5300/- from the government fund which consisted of four currency notes of the denomination of