JUDGMENT R.K. Chowdhry, J.For offences under the last three countsthey were tried by jury and for that under the first with the aid of assessors.The appellants have been sentenced to 3 years' R. I. each under Section 120B, I. P. C. They have also been sentenced to 2 years' R. I. each under Section 161, I. P. C., plus a fine of Rs. 25,000/- in the case of Chari and of Rs. 5,000/- in the case of Vaish.By notification No. 223 of the Government of India in the Department of Supply, dated 25-2-1943, the Deputy Iron and Steel Controllers in various States were authorised to exercise the powers of the Controller.Each State was allotted a quota of the commodity., and the Deputy Iron and Steel Controller, referred to hereinafter as the D. I. S. C., distributed that quota to the stock holders of the State.The first D. I. S. C. in Uttar Pradesh at Kanpur was Sri B. D. Talwar P. W. 31, and the appellant Chari was Assistant Iron and Steel Controller under him.Chari took over as D. I. S. C. from Sri Talwar in the afternoon of 31-12-1945, and held that office until 20-9-1946, when he suddenly left Kanpur without waiting for his leave to be sanctioned by the Controller at Calcutta after handing over charge to Sri.There was an association of stock-holders of iron and steel at Kanpur known as the U. P. Registered Stock-holders Association.Chari was ex officio chairman of the Association.The railway administration was the main source of supply of scrap iron, and for U. P. it was the railway yard at Alambagh.The office of the D. I. S. C. at Kanpur consisted of various sections.The appellants have been convicted for having accepted illegal gratifications in return for favours shown in a number of instances by misuse of Chari's powers as D. I. S. C. of issuing written orders for purchase of iron and steel and for purchase of scrap iron and also his powers of issuing orders for release of material as Chairman of the Stock-holders' Association at Kanpur.Written orders are also said to have been forged to appear as if issued before the aforesaid dates of decontrol, and before the date on which directions were issued in the Conference at Calcutta and both the appellants are said to have been in criminal conspiracy to commit the aforesaid offences.Vaish is said to have accepted illegal gratification in two instances and to have abetted acceptance of illegal gratification by Chari.They made a number of seizures of articles and documents from the residence and office of Chari and from dealers in Kanpur and in various other districts, and L. S. Darbari submitted a charge sheet against the appellants on 2-3-1949 after necessary sanctions under Section 197 Cr. P. Code, and Section 6 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947, had been obtained.Chari admitted having issued after return from the Calcutta conference licences ante dated as anterior to 23-3-1946 but pleaded that he did it so as not to appear to have disregarded the directions given by the Controlled at the said Conference.The other antedatings were denied.The statement of B. D. Soni P. W. 10, Superintendent Stock-holders' Association, to whom Chari addressed the said orders, that these priorities greatly disturbed releases appears therefore to be quite correct.Chari's defence relating to the pieces of furniture was that "he had given permission to Sher Singh Arora to keep these articles in his office so, that they may serve as advertisement and people may sit on them, because he had told me that he manafactured them.He had written in bold letters, thereon that they have been manufactured in his firm.Arora therefore supplied the revolving chair from his own Kanpur office.That explains why the revolving chair bore the aforesaid inscription.If advertisement had been the object, the inscription would much rather have been on the pieces got specially manufactured at Delhi.Moreover, it would be a strange phenomenon for a D. I. S. C., to lend his office to serve as an advertisement base for the goods of a firm, to say nothing of its being against officers conduct rules.In default of payment of fine, the defaulter is to suffer, further rigorous imprisonment for 6 months.One of these was the civil supplies section which prepared and issued written orders, or licences, for sale of iron or steel by the stock-holders Association at Kanpur in compliance with the orders of the D. I. S. C. on applications of persons for such licenses.Control on scrap Iron lasted till 31-12-1945, the date on which Talwar handed over charge to Chari.With effect from 1-1-1946, scrap iron was decontrolled, vide the General Authorisation Order, Ex. P301 dated 12-12-1945, issued by the Controller along with the letter Ex. 302 of even date to theRailway Board and all Regional D. I. and S. Controllers.With effect from 1-4-1946, iron and steel was decontrolled, vide the letter Ex. P308 from the Deputy Secretary to the Government of India in the Department of Industries and Supplies to the Provincial Governments and Chief Commissioners.Mr. E. G. Spooner P. W. 1, the Iron and Steel Controller, held a conference of the Deputy Regional Iron and Steel Controllers at Calcutta on the 25th and 26th of March, 1946, in which it was decided that although iron and steel was to be decontrolled from 1-4-1946, no further licences were to be issued in respect of that commodity, and oral instructions were given accordingly to all the D. I. S. Cs., Including Chari.Both the appellants denied the various charges levelled against them.Examination of the proceedings in the Sessions Court after commitment discloses that the record was received in the Court of the Sessions Judge on 12-5-1952 and on 30-6-1952 and he issued orders that prosecution witnesses be summoned from 25-8-1952 and the defence witnesses from 10-9-1952 onwards, that the accused's counsel be informed to produce them on 25-8-1952 and that 10 jurors be summoned.On 21-7-1952 Chari endorsed a note on the order sheet that he had received information fromhis counsel about his presenting himself in the Sessions Court on 25-8-1952, that he shall, present himself on that date and subsequently during the trial, and that no notice be issued to the sureties.On 24-7-1952 an application along with the list of defence witnesses was sent to the Committing Magistrate.On 14-8-1952 two applications were filed on behalf of Vaish, one for summoning certain defence witnesses and the other for requiring a prosecution witness, the Secretary, Iron and Steel Controller's office Calcutta, to produce a register.On the motion of the public prosecutor and by an order dated 16-8-1952 the Sessions Judge adjourned the sessions trial sine die, and on 29-8-1952 he transferred the case to the Court of Sri B. N. Chaudhari Additional Sessions Judge.On the same date the Additional Sessions Judge ordered summoning of prosecution witnesses from 3-11-1952 and defence witnesses from 18-11-1952 and also the summoning of jurors who had been selected already.Not only was the Sessions Court ready to commence the trial but the accused had appeared before it and witnesses for the prosecution and defence, the latter at the instance of the accused themselves, and jurors had been summoned.I propose to examine the ten instances on which the convictions are based in the order in which they have been dealt with by the learned Additional Sessions Judge.I am considering for the present the charges in respect of which there was jury trial, leaving consideration of the charge of criminal conspiracy to the end.At the same time the payment of bribe was also settled.In the next place, the deception was practised by Chari to derive benefit to himself for, as seen already, he did it to wrest the bribe of Rs. 8,000/- from Sheo Karan Das.The remaining charges against Chari need a more detailed examination.And the first in importance is the one of bribery.The charge under Section 165, I. P. C., in respect of acceptance of furniture by Chari seems to be wrong.The allegation being that the same was accepted as a motive or reward to grant licences and expedite supply of material, the proper section was 161, I. P. C. That presumably is why the offence under Section 165, I. P. C., is not one of those for which there has been any conviction.In regard to the payment of Rs. 10,000/- in two instalments, the cash book Ex. P. 290 containing entries about the sums and seized from the house of Sher Singh Arora by S. I. Anwar Husain P. W. 8 on 16-9-1946 does not appear to afford the requisite corro-boration.Arora's statement is that he got the furniture except the revolving chair from the firm at Delhi for Chari at Chari's request and supplied the revolving chair out of his own office furniture, and that when he demanded the price Chari said he would compensate him in other ways.Leaving the revolving chair, the rest of the furniture was worth Rs. 425/-.Chari compensated Arora by granting him licences Exhibits P. 281, 282, 284,.It had been marked on one piece."This defence was based on the legend appearing on the back of only one piece, as admitted: "Manufactured by the National Cycle Manufacturing Co., Kanpur".This was the name given to the branch office in Kanpur of a company in Delhi, manufacturing conduit pipes and articles, like tubular furniture made therefrom styled the National Conduits, and of which Arora was the Managing Agent.The seized furniture was tubular furniture.It is proved from, the statement of Arora, supported as it is by the statements of Nanak Chand Tandon P. W. 50, his local manager, Jagmohan Bansal P. W. 15 manager of the Delhi firm and Baboo Lal Vaish P. W. 46Delivery Clerk in the Central Goods-shed Kanpur, and a number of documents proved by them, that the pieces of furniture other than the revolving chair were got manufactured by Arora in the Delhi firm and received from there, and that the revolving chair was supplied by Arora from his own office.Those pieces were however not seized from the office, but from the residence of Chari, as testified to by the aforesaid police officer and Sri Bal Govind Singh P. W. 16, the Additional City Magistrate who supervised the seizure.The seizure was made from a building known as the Ayodhya Bha-wan part of which served as Chari's office and part as his residence.Cross-examination of the Magistrate made it all the more clear, while the statement of the police officer was not challenged in cross-examination.The list Ex. P. 17 is also corroborative of the statements of these two witnesses about the furniture in question having been seized from the residential portion of the building since the articles seized were all house-hold effects.Emplacement of furniture in the residence could hardly make for advertisement.Certain statements appearing in the evidence of Sher Singh Arora and his local Manager Nanak Chand Tandon were drawn upon by the learned counsel for Chari.Arora's statement in the Sessions Court was that his manager knew how the said inscription was painted on the back of the chair, but his statement in the court of the Committing Magistrate was that he had got it painted.Nanak Chand Tandon also stated at the trial that Arora had asked him to have it done.That was more natural, and that was also the earlier version of Arora himself before the Magistrate.It appears to have been the merest slip on the part of Arora therefore to have said at the trial that his Manager knew how the inscription was painted.Reference was also made to the statement of Tandon that Arora had asked him to have 'Presented by National Cycle Manufacturing Co.' painted but the painter had inscribed 'Manufactured by Nation Cycle Manufacturing Co.' instead.This was evidently mere embellishment.Another statement appearing in Nanak Chand Tandon's cross-examination and referred to by Chari's learned counsel was that the revolving chair was given by Mr. Arora to Chari for his office.It does not appear that the said inscription was put at the back of the chair on Chari expressing his desire, after having been presented with the other furniture specially ordered for him from Delhi, that he also required a revolving chair.That wish of Chari was complied with by Arora having taken to him a chair, as it was, from his own office.There was nothing strange therefore that such a witness should have readily given in to the suggestion in cross-examination that the inscription was made for the sake of advertisement.And a reference to the quota register Ex. P. 62 shows that these licences, bearing numbers 3,61,717 and 3,61,721, also appear under a date that was tampered with.Both the appellants have of course denied receipt of the amounts.Prosecution evidence in support of this charge under Section 161, I. P. C., against the two appellants consists of the statements of Brahma Swarup Gupta P. W. 11 himself and his partner Sat Narain who was examined under Section 540, Criminal P. C.Being bribe-givers themselves, both these witnesses were accomplices and their testimony required independent corroboration.These stray entries could be made at any time.Accomplice evidence in this instance therefore lacks corroboration.The aforesaid charges of bribery cannot therefore be said to have been brought home to the appellants.(4) Banwari Lal Saraswat : The prosecution case relating to this instance is that in return for granting a number of licences for purchase of iron and steel Chari was given by Banwari Lal Saraswat P. W. 2 a secondhand refrigerator worth Rs. 1,200/- on or about29-3-1946 and D. C. Orient ceiling fans worth about Rs. 300/- in the last week of August 1940 as bribe, and that he antedated the licences Exhibits P. 110, P. 109 and P. 94 from 29-3-1946 to 23-3-1946 and thereby committed forgery.This charge of forgery is against Vaish also.The crucial question, both for the charge, under Section 161 and that under Section 467, I. P. C., is whether the refrigerator and the fans were accepted by Chari as illegal gratification.It is also the prosecution case, as admitted by Banwari Lal Saraswat P. W. 2 and testified to by two employees of the Electric Supply Co. at Kanpur, L. N. Shukla P. W. 20 and A. " Maul P, W. 21, that early in May 1946 the refrigerator developed some defect, but the same could not be repaired in the U. P. Electric Supply Co.The prosecution case is that the refrigerator was thereafter given by Chari for repair to K. S. Reuben P. W. 29, a mechanic, at the suggestion of Banwari Lal Saraswat.That may be so, but the crucial question is whether it had been given to Chari by Banwari Lal as bribe or whether Chari had taken it on hire from him.Corrobaration for that evidence was sought to be found in the letter Exhibit P24 dated 6-5-1946 which Chari wrote to the Electric Supply Co. Kanpur for the repair of the refrigerator because in this letter he described the refrigerator as "my personal one." That is however a description which even a person who had taken the refrigerator on hire could have used in order to impress upon the Electric Supply Co. that the work required their special attention.It appears that the Electric Supply Co. had at the same time been requested telephonically by Banwari Lal Saraswat for the repair of the refrigerator, and Exhibit P. 25 dated 7-5-1946 is the reply which the company sent to Banwari Lal Saraswat.That did not however detract from the defence plea that the fans had been taken on hire.There is no doubt that a suspicion arises that the refrigerator ,and the ceiling fans may have been accepted by Chari as illegal gratification in view of the fact that he had granted licence for a large quantity of the commodity in favour of Banwari Lal Saraswat, but suspicion cannot take the place of proof.I am therefore of the view that the prosecution has not been able to prove the charge under Section 161, I. P. C., against Chari.That being so, the charge of forgery by antedating licences should also fail since the element of gain to Chari is wanting.The other appellant Vaish could not possibly be held to be guilty of the offence under Section 467 I. P. C. even if that charge stood established against Chari since there was no allegation, much less proof, that there was payment of any illegal gratification to Vaish.The charge relating to this instance therefore fails against both the appellants.Kali Charan was the Munim of those firms and Bulaqi Das Goel P. W. 13 and Ram Saran Das P. W. 47 were some of the proprietors of the firms.These applications, which are said to have been presented to Chari on 30-3-1946, are alleged to have been been typed at Agra on 29-3-1946 by one S. V. Shastri, an employee in the said firms.At the same time, the aforesaid sums of Rs. 2,000/- and Rs. 100/- are said to have been paid to Chari.According to Kali Charan payment of bribe was settled at Rs. 40/- per ton and Rs. 100/-represented part payment of bribe relating to the corrugated sheets, the rest having been promised to be paid later.Chari is said to have asked Kali Charan to change the date of the applications to 19-3-1946, but Kali Charan said that this could not be done as the proprietors were at Agra.The balance of Rs. 700/- payable to Chari in respect of the corrugated sheets was however not sent to him.Both the appellants denied the charges.Both Kali Charan and Bulaki Das admit that they maintained account books in which all the expenses of the firms were recorded; but none of those books of account was produced.One of them, a rokar 'bahi, is said to have been seized by L. S. Darbari.Kali Charan admitted that there was no entry in the books of account relating to the aforesaid sum of Rs. 2,100/- and both he and Bulaki Das professed ignorance as to whether the travelling expenses of Kali Charan and Shastri (the latter is also said to have come to Kanpur with Kali Charan) were entered in the books of account or not.It follows that as Chari derived no advantage, and as the antedating cannot be said to have necessarily caused loss, damage or injury to anybody else, the charge of forgery also fails.On this finding, failure of charge against Vaish follows as a necessary consequence.The application Exhibit P. 52 is said to have been presented to Chari for the licence on 3-4-1946, but it is said to have been antedated to 23-3-1946 at the instance of Chari.The charges against Vaish were of forging the licence and abatement of acceptance of the aforesaid sum of Rs. 1000/- by Chari.Here again the accomplice evidence of Ram Sarup Nigam and Raj Bahadur suffers for want of independent corroboration.Raj Bahadur admits that account books were maintained, but the same were not produced and there was no explanation for their non-production.Rat Bahadur stated that Ram Swarup Nigam had told him that the amount was being paid out of the income of his Zamindari and it was therefore not entered in the books of account.Besides this statement being unworthy of reliance on the very face of it, it is inadmissible being hearsay.The prosecution produced two witnesses, Yamin Khan P. W. 33 and Mohammad Hanif P.W. 53, who stated that they had also paid bribes to Chari, and that they were able to do so by Ram Swarup Nigam acting as the go-between.The evi-dence of these two witnesses besides being unsupported by any documentary evidence, cannot be said to be corroborative of the payment of the alleged bribe by Ram Swarup Nigam himself since they speak of payment of certain bribes which had nothing to do with the alleged payment of bribe by or on behalf of Ram Swarup Nigam.The charge in res-pect of payment of Bribe therefore fails and, as a necessary consequence also the charge of forgery against both the appellants.The licence was granted in favour of the firm Shambhu Dayal Deep Chand of Baraut in the district of Meerut of which Kapur Chand Jain (P. W, 7 was a partner and Jagdish Prasad P. W. 9 this manager.The licence' was granted on the application Exhibit P. 296, Kapur Chand Jain profess-ed to have seen Chari on the 20th and 22nd of March 1946 when Chari is said to have asked him to apply with the recommendation of the Sub-Divisional Magistrate or some other gazetted officer.He then returned, to Baraut and got the application typed by Jagdish Prasad.He then saw Char with the application on 29-3-1946, and, according to the witness, payment of bribe to Chari at Rs. 50/- per ton was then settled and the witness was asked to see Chari at his house in the evening.The antedating of the order passed by Chari on 23-3-1946 and of the licence issued on foot of that order is no doubt clear in view of the dates of the aforesaid recommendations, but here again no advantage was derived by Chari since bribe is only said to have been settled but not paid.For reasons al-ready recorded, the charge of forgery against both the appellants therefore fails.He left the application with Chari and got intimation slips subsequently but no licence.In view of the date of the Magistrate's re-commendation there is no doubt that Chari antedated his order and the licence but here again as there was no allegation, much less proof, of payment of any bribe, the charge of forgery against both the appellants fails.(9) Gauri Shanker Goel: In this instance lalso the only charge is of forgery of the licence Exhibit P. 82 against both the appellants.Gauri Shanker Goel P. W. 63 professes to have taken his, application Exhibit P. 82A with the recommends tion of the Magistrate Sri G. S., Churamani P. W. 45-dated 27-3-1946, and a few days later he professes to have received the licence in a registered cover.Gauri Shanker Goel says that bribe was demanded from him but he paid none because he was a poor man.In this instance also therefore although Chad did antedate his order and therefore the licence the charge of foregery cannot be said to have been made out because there is no evidence of Chari having derived any benefit.The charge of forgery against Vaish also fails not only because of that charge filing against Chari but also because Vaish appears to have prepared the licence in compliance with the order of Chari.(10) Bhagwan Das : This was the only, instance of grant of licence for purchase of scrap iron which was decontrolled from and on 1-1-1946 The charge against Chari was that in return for a bribe of Rs. 400/- paid to him on 3-1-1946, by Bhagwan Das P. W. 60, proprietor of the Kanpur Iron Manufacturing and Supply Co. and Manager of his father's firm Baldeo Das Daya Ram, Chari antedated the licence Exhibit P. 278 as having; been ordered to be issued prior to the control.The charge against Vaish was that he had also received a bribe of Rs 100/- on the same date from Bhagwan Das and committed forgery by preparing the aforesaid licence.The prosecution proved the antedating from the evidence of A. K. Sinha P. W. 30, a clerk in the office of the D. I. S. C. at Kanpur according to whom the last written order passed by Chari's predecessor was Exhibit P. 272 dated 31-12-1945 That according to the testimony of A. K, Sinha and the other prosecution witnesses, was the date on which Talwar handed over charge to Chari late in the afternoon after which no work was done that day in the office.The charge in question therefore fails against both the appellants in this instance also.From what has gone before, therefore, it appears that the charges against Chari in respect of offence punishable under Sections 161 and 467, I.P.C., have been brought home to him only in the 1st and 2nd instance, and no charge has been brought home to Vaish in any of the 10 instances.As regards the charge of criminal conspiracy under Section 120B, I. P. C. the conspiracy is said to have been formed by Chari with Vaish and others, meaning presumably the other employees in his office.None of the charges has however succeeded against Vaish.The other employees in the office would also appear to have done their part of preparing the licences under the orders of Chari who was their superior officer.

Cited provisions: Section 120B in The Indian Penal Code; Section 161 in The Indian Penal Code; Section 467 in The Indian Penal Code; Section 109 in The Indian Penal Code