Criminal Revision No.893 of 2010 -1- IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Criminal Revision No.893 of 2010 Date of decision:- 12.7.2010 Avtar Singh and others ...Petitioners Versus State of Punjab ...Respondent CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RAM CHAND GUPTA Present:- Mr. H.S. Bhullar, Advocate for the petitioner. Mr. K.D. Sachdeva, Addl.A.G. Punjab RAM CHAND GUPTA J.(Oral) The present revision petition has been filed under Sections 397 read with 401 Cr.P.C. against the order dated 21.1.2010 vide which learned trial Court has framed charges against the petitioner-accused for offences under Sections 367,397,325 and 323 IPC read with Section 34 IPC. It has been stated by learned counsel for the petitioner that from the reading of the FIR and from the report under Section 173 Cr.P.C. after investigation no offence under Sections 367 and 397 IPC is made out against the petitioner-accused. Further contended that police has not recovered the mobile phone, which was allegedly taken away by the accused from the possession of the complainant Sadhu Singh. Further contended that no injury was attributed to the petitioner after the alleged abduction. Criminal Revision No.893 of 2010 -2- Law is well settled that at the time of framing of charge, only prima facie case is to be seen and even if there is strong suspicion about the commis- sion of offence and the involvement of the accused, it is sufficient for the Court to frame charge and that there is no necessity of formulating the opinion about the prospect of the conviction. Law is also well settled that veracity and effect of the evidence which the prosecution proposes to adduce are not to be meticulously gone into at that stage. On the point authoritative pronouncement of Hon’ble Apex Court in Supdt. and Remembrancer of Legal Affiars, West Bengal v. Anil Kumar Bhunja anothers, 1980 AIR (SC) 52 can be referred, relevant paragraph of which reads as under:- “18. It may be remembered that the case was at the stage of fram- ing charges; the prosecution evidence had not yet commenced. The Magistrate had, therefore, to consider the above question on a general consideration of the materials placed before him by the in- vestigating police officer. At this stage, as was pointed out by this Court in State of Bihar v. Ramesh Singh, AIR 1977 SC 2018, the truth, veracity and effect of the evidence which the prosecutor pro- poses to adduce are not to be meticulously judged. The standard of test, proof and judgment which is to be applied finally before finding the accused guilty or otherwise, is not exactly to be applied at the stage of Section 227 or 228 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. At this stage, even a very strong suspicion founded upon ma- terials before the Magistrate, which leads him to form a presump- tive opinion as to the existence of the factual ingredients constitut- ing the offence alleged; may justify the framing of charge against the accused in respect of the commission of that offence.” In State of Maharashtra v. Som Nath Thapa, etc. 1996 (2) RCR (Criminal) 480, Hon’ble Apex Court observed as under:- “33. The aforesaid shows that if on the basis of materials on rec- ord, a court could come to the conclusion that commission of the offence is a probable consequence, a case for framing of charge exists. To put it differently, if the Court were to think that the ac- cused might have committed the offence it can frame the charge, though for conviction the conclusion is required to be that the ac- cused has committed the offence. It is apparent that at the stage of framing of charge, probative value of the materials on record can- Criminal Revision No.893 of 2010 -3- not be gone into; the materials brought on record by the prosecu- tion has to be accepted as true at that stage.” In State of M.P. v. Sudhir Pingle, 2000(1) RCR (Criminal) 523, it was observed as under: “4. In our view, it is apparent that the entire approach of the High Court is illegal and erroneous. From the reasons recorded by the High Court, it appears that instead of considering the prima facie case, the High Court has appreciated and weighed the materials on record for coming to the conclusion that charge against the respon- dents could not have been framed. It is settled law that at the state of framing the charge, the Court has to prima facie consider whether there is sufficient ground for proceedings against the ac- cused. The Court is not required to appreciate the evidence and ar- rive at the conclusion that the material produced are sufficient or not for convicting the accused. If the Court is satisfied that a prima facie case is made out for proceeding further then a charge has to be framed. The charge can be quashed if the evidence which the prosecutor proposes to adduce to prove the guilt of the accused, even if fully accepted before it is challenged by cross-examination or rebutted by defence evidence, if any, cannot show that accused committed the particular offence. In such case, there would be no sufficient ground for proceeding with the trial. In Niranjan Singh Karam Singh Punjabi etc. v. Jitendra Bhimraj Bijjayya and others etc. 1991 (1) RCR (Crl.) 89: 1990 (4) SCC 76, after considering the provisions of Sections 227 and 228, Cr.P.C., Court posed a ques- tion, whether at the stage of framing the charge, trial Court should marshal the materials on the record of the case as he would do on the conclusion of the trial? The Court held that at the stage of fram- ing the charge inquiry must necessarity be limited to deciding if the facts emerging from such materials constitute the offence with which the accused could be charged. The Court may peruse the re- cords for that limited purpose, but it is not required to marshal it with a view to decide the reliability thereof. The Court referred to earlier decisions in State of Bihar v. Ramesh Singh, 1977 (4) SCC 39, Union of India v. Prafulla Kumar Samal, 1979 (3) SCC 4 and Supdt. and Rememberancer of Legal Affairs, West Bengal v. Anil Kumar Bhunja, 1979 (4) SCC 274, and held thus:” Criminal Revision No.893 of 2010 -4- “From the above discussion it seems well settled that at the Sections 227-228 stage the Court is required to evaluate the material and documents on record with a view to finding out if the facts emerging therefrom taken at their face value dis- close the existence of all the ingredients constituting the al- leged offence. The Court may for this limited purpose shift (sift ?) the evidence as it cannot be expected even at the ini- tial stage to accept all that the prosecution states as gospel truth even if it is opposed to common sense or the broad probabilities of the case.” In another judgment of Hon’ble Apex court in Sanghi Broth- ers (Indore) Pvt.Ltd., v. Sanjay Chaudhary and ors. 2008 (4) RCR (Criminal) 640, on the question of framing of charge, the Hon’ble Apex Court observed as under: “11. The present case is not one where the High Court ought to have interfered with the order of framing the charge. As rightly submitted by learned counsel for the appellant, even if there is a strong suspicion about the commission of offence and the in- volvement of the accused, it is sufficient for the court to frame a charge. At that stage, there is no necessity of formulating the opinion about the prospect of conviction. That being so, the im- pugned order of the High Court cannot be sustained and is set aside. The appeal is allowed.” Hence, in view of the aforementioned authoritative pronounce- ments of Hon’ble Apex Court, learned trial court is only to see prima facie case at the time of framing of charge and even if the Court think that the accused might have committed the offence, it can frame the charge though for conviction the conclusion is required to be that the accused has committed the offence and probative value of the material of the record cannot be gone into and that the material brought on the record by the prosecution has to be accepted as truth at that stage. In the present case, a perusal of FIR shows that complainant was going on his motor-cycle when accused came in a gypsy and hit the same against the motor-cycle due to which he fell down and thereafter injuries were caused to him with Tamba and rools by the accused. He was also dragged on the road. Accused had taken away mobile phone make Nokia, bearing No. 9464718743 belonging to complainant. He was taken in gypsy first to Moga and thereafter to Sarpanch of the Village. Criminal Revision No.893 of 2010 -5- The statement of complainant has been duly corroborated by his brother. Hence, in view of these facts and in view of the legal proposition on the point, as discussed above, I am of the view that no illegality has been com- mitted by learned trial Court by framing charges under Sections 367 and 397 IPC. The present revision petition is dismissed being devoid of any merit. July 12, 2010 ( RAM CHAND GUPTA ) vj JUDGE