1. Rabin Das, aged about 51 years, son of late Dhananjay Das, resident of v. 1. The State of Jharkhand 2. Chitranjan Sah, son of Bharat Sah, resident of
Case Details
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JHARKHAND, RANCHI W.P. (Cr.) No. 239 of 2023 ---- 1. Rabin Das, aged about 51 years, son of late Dhananjay Das, resident of Madhya Chakpara, P.O. Chakpara, P.S. Liluah, District – Howrah (West Bengal) 2. Anirban Mukherjee, aged about 40 years, son of Sri Bhabani Prasad Mukherjee, residing at 1/336 Jodhpur Park, P.O. Jodhpur Park, P.S. Lake, District Kolkata (West Bengal) .... Petitioners -- Versus -- 1. The State of Jharkhand 2. Chitranjan Sah, son of Bharat Sah, resident of Patel Park, Dimna Road, Near Yuvraj Complex, P.O. Mango, P.S. Ulidih (Mango), Town Jamshedpur, District – East Singhbhum. CORAM: HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE SANJAY KUMAR DWIVEDI --- .... Respondents ----
Legal Reasoning
For the Petitioners For the State For Respondent No.2 :- Mr. A.K. Sahani, Advocate :- Mr. Rishav Kumar, Advocate :- Mr. Deepankar, AC to GA III :- Mr. Ajit Kumar, Advocate ---- 03/24.07.2024 Heard learned counsel appearing for the petitioners, learned counsel appearing for the State and learned counsel appearing for the Respondent No.2. 2.
Decision
The prayer in the writ petition is made for quashing of the entire criminal proceeding including the First Information Report being MGM (Mango) P.S. Case No.52 of 2022 registered under Sections 406, 420, 120B, 379 & 34 of the Indian Penal Code pending in the court of learned Judicial Magistrate, Jamshedpur. --1-- W.P. (Cr.) No. 239 of 2023 3. The complaint case was filed alleging therein that the complainant is the sole proprietor of the firm namely “M/s Ritu Rani Enterprises” and is engaged in the business of sale and supply of scrap raw materials which includes raw pooled iron fines / crop end muck. In continuation of his business, the accused persons running their firm under the name and style of Purulia Metal Casting Pvt. Ltd. approached to the complainant’s firm, and as such, the complainant agreed to supply pooled iron fines / crop end muck to the accused persons’ firm. In the course of business terms, the accused persons brought various raw materials and all the raw materials were supplied to their firm with government e-bills, invoice including GST duly paid in the name of their firm. As per the records of ledger, it is evident that a sum of Rs.56,33,612.13 is due to be paid by the accused persons’ company. The complainant has intimated to the concerned authority as well as the accused persons to clear the due amount of Rs.56,33,612.13, but all the efforts went in vain. The complainant has sent a demand notice to the accused persons for payment of the due amount on 03.01.2022, but even after receiving the notice no response has been given from the side of accused persons. --2-- W.P. (Cr.) No. 239 of 2023 The complainant went to meet the accused persons, but the accused persons with their musclemen stopped the complainant to enter into the company’s premises and forcefully dragged them out of the premise threatening them of dire consequences. 4. Mr. Rishav Kumar, learned counsel appearing for the petitioners submits that the petitioner No.1 is the Director of the Company namely Purulia Metal Casting Pvt. Ltd. and the petitioner No.2 is erstwhile Director of Purulia Metal Castings Pvt. Ltd. He submits that the said company is engaged in the business of iron minerals and due to their extreme hard work and diligence, the company has acquired goodwill in this field across the country. He submits that the respondent No.2 is also engaged in the same field of business as the petitioner’s company and is having continuous business transactions. According to him, the orders were placed by the company concern of the petitioners and upon receiving the orders the respondent No.2 used to supply the same to the company namely Purulia Metal Castings Ltd. He submits that regular payments were done to the respondent No.2 and a separate ledger was maintained. He then submits that the allegations are made that a sum of Rs.56,17,974.65 was not paid to the company, however in the complaint itself it is admitted that a sum of Rs.2,52,64,611.65 was paid to the respondent No.2. He further submits that false allegations are made against the directors, who are residing at West Bengal that they have travelled to Jamshedpur and assaulted the --3-- W.P. (Cr.) No. 239 of 2023 complainant. He submits that if any case is made out that is civil in nature and in absence of any recovery proceeding the complaint case has been filed which was sent by the learned Court under Section 156(3) of the Cr.P.C. and the police has submitted the charge sheet, so far the other two accused persons are concerned and the investigation, so far the petitioners are concerned has been kept open. He further submits that in the first page of complaint only endorsement is made under Section 156(3) of Cr.P.C. and the learned Court without applying his judicial mind has sent the same to the police. On this ground, he submits that the entire criminal proceeding may kindly be quashed. 5. Mr. Deepankar, learned counsel appearing for the respondent State submits that the police has submitted the charge sheet against two accused persons, however, investigation, so far as these petitioners are concerned, is still kept open. 6. Mr. A.K. Sahani, learned counsel appearing for the respondent No.2 submits that the amount has not been paid which suggests that the intention to cheat was there from the very beginning. According to him, the case is also registered under the other sections of the IPC and the respondent No.2 has been assaulted by the petitioners and in view of that this Court may not exercise the power under Article 226 of the Constitution of India at this stage and the entire argument by the learned counsel appearing for the petitioner can be a subject matter of the trial. --4-- W.P. (Cr.) No. 239 of 2023 7. In view of the above submission of learned counsel appearing for the parties, the Court has gone through the contents of the FIR which has been converted into the FIR. In the complaint petition itself, it is alleged that the petitioner and the respondents were in business terms. In the tabular chart, it has been disclosed in the complaint petition that a sum of Rs.2,52,64,611.65 has already been paid to the respondent No.2 by the petitioner and the allegations are made that a sum of Rs.56,17,974.65 has not been paid which clearly suggests that if any dispute is there that is civil in nature for that the petitioner is having another remedy and for that the criminal case has been instituted. The petitioners are said to be the directors of Purulia Metal Casting Pvt. Ltd. and the allegations are made that the respondent No.2 was assaulted by them at Jamshedpur which appears to be misconceived one and it is not expected that the directors of the company will travel from West Bengal to assault the petitioners for such a petty allegation as such the said allegations are afterthought of the respondent No.2 to make out a case. It is well settled that every contract cannot be a subject matter of criminal proceeding. 8. Reference may be made to the case of Vir Prakash Sharma versus Anil Kumar Agarwal, reported in (2007) 7 SCC 373. Paragraph 8 of the said judgment reads as under: “8. The dispute between the parties herein is essentially a civil dispute. Non-payment or --5-- W.P. (Cr.) No. 239 of 2023 underpayment of the price of the goods by itself does not amount to commission of an offence of cheating or criminal breach of trust. No offence, having regard to the definition of criminal breach of trust contained in Section 405 of the Penal Code can be said to have been made out in the instant case. Section 405 of the Penal Code reads, thus: “405. Criminal breach of trust – Whoever, being in any manner entrusted with property, or with any dominion over property, dishonestly misappropriates or converts to his own use that property, or dishonestly uses or disposes of that property in violation of any direction of law prescribing the mode in which such trust is to be discharged, or of any legal contract, express or implied, which he has made touching the discharge of such trust, or wilfully suffers any other person so to do, commits ‘criminal breach of trust’.” Neither any allegation has been made to show existence of the ingredients of the aforementioned provision nor any statement in that behalf has been made.” 9. In view of the above facts, reasons and analysis this case arising out of civil nature, if any and for that the criminal case has --6-- W.P. (Cr.) No. 239 of 2023 been instituted against the directors of the company as such to allow the proceedings to continue will amount to abuse of process of law. Accordingly, the entire criminal proceeding including the First Information Report being MGM (Mango) P.S. Case No.52 of 2022 pending in the court of learned Judicial Magistrate, Jamshedpur, so far these petitioners are concerned, are hereby quashed. 10. This petition is allowed in above terms and disposed of. 11. It is made clear that if any civil proceeding is there that will be decided in accordance with law without prejudice of this order as this order has been passed only considering the criminal aspect of the matter. Sangam/ A.F.R. (Sanjay Kumar Dwivedi, J.) --7-- W.P. (Cr.) No. 239 of 2023