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TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2014 (1) TMI 553
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....er of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly as also a State Minister of Tourism. Respondent No. 2, K. Neelkanda Pillai is his father and Respondent No. 3, R.Rajam, his mother. On the basis of an information that N. Suresh Rajan, during his tenure as the Minister of Tourism, had acquired and was in possession of pecuniary resources and properties in his name and in the names of his father and mother, disproportionate to his known sources of income, Crime No. 7 of 2002 was registered at Kanyakumari Vigilance and Anti Corruption Department on 14th of March, 2002 against the Minister N. Suresh Rajan, his father, mother, elder sister and his bother- in-law. During the course of the investigation, the investigating officer collected and gathered informations with regard to the property and pecuniary resources in possession of N. Suresh Rajan during his tenure as the Minister, in his name and in the name of others. On computation of the income of the Minister from his known sources and also expenditure incurred by him, it was found that the properties owned and possessed by him are disproportionate to his known sources of income to the tune of Rs. 23,77,950.94. The investigating officer not....
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....lice, Vigilance and Anti Corruption Cuddalore Detachment v. K. Ponumudi & Ors. (2007-1MLJ-CRL.-100), the validity whereof is also under consideration in the connected appeals. The High Court while allowing the criminal revision observed as follows: "12.In the instant case, the properties standing in the name of the petitioners 2 and 3 namely, A2 and A3 could not be held to be the properties or resources belonging to the 1st accused in the absence of any investigation into the individual income resources of A2 and A3. Moreover, it is not disputed that A2 was a retired Head Master receiving pension and A3 is running a Financial Institution and an Income Tax assessee. In the absence of any material to show that A1's money flow into the hands of A2 and A3, they cannot be said to be holding the properties and resources in their name on behalf of the first accused. There is also no material to show that A2 and A3 instigated A1 to acquire properties and c to his known source of income." It is in these circumstances that the appellant is before us. CRIMINAL APPEAL NO.26-38 OF 2014 (@SPECIAL LEAVE PETITION(CRL.)Nos. 134-146 of 2013) These....
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....ess. The government departments are under a special obligation to ensure that they perform their duties with diligence and commitment. Condonation of delay is an exception and should not be used as an anticipated benefit for the government departments. The law shelters everyone under the same light and should not be swirled for the benefit of a few." Mr. Sorabjee further submits that the Limitation Act does not provide for different period of limitation for the Government in resorting to the remedy provided under the law and the case in hand being not a case of fraud or collusion by its officers or agents, the huge delay is not fit to be condoned. Reliance has also been placed on a decision of this Court in the case of Pundlik Jalam Patil v. Executive Engineer, Jalgaon Medium Project, (2008) 17 SCC 448 and reference has been made to Paragraph 31 of the judgment, which reads as follows: "31. It is true that when the State and its instrumentalities are the applicants seeking condonation of delay they may be entitled to certain amount of latitude but the law of limitation is same for citizen and for governmental authoritie....
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....upuram (hereinafter referred to as 'the Special Judge'), in the Special Case No. 7 of 2003, have been dismissed. Leave granted. Shorn of unnecessary details, facts giving rise to the present appeals are that K. Ponumudi, respondent No. 1 herein, happened to be a Member of the State Legislative Assembly and a State Minister in the Tamil Nadu Government during the check period. P. Visalakshi Ponmudi (Respondent No.2) is his wife, whereas P.Saraswathi (Respondent No.3) (since deceased) was his mother-in-law. A.Manivannan (Respondent No.4) and A.Nandagopal (Respondent No.5) (since deceased) are the friends of the Minister (Respondent No.1). Respondent Nos. 3 to 5 during their lifetime were trustees of one Siga Educational Trust, Villupuram. In the present appeals, we have to examine the validity of the order of discharge passed by the Special Judge as affirmed by the High Court. Hence, we consider it unnecessary to go into the details of the case of the prosecution or the defence of the respondent at this stage. Suffice it to say that, according to the prosecution, K. Ponmudi (Respondent No.1), as a Minister of Transport and a Member of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly during the....
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....roperties and pecuniary resources in the name of Siga Educational Trust by purporting to be its Trustees. It is relevant here to mention that during the course of investigation, the statement of all other accused were taken and in the opinion of the investigating agency, after due scrutiny of their statements and further verification, the Minister was not able to satisfactorily account for the quantum of disproportionate assets. Accordingly, the Vigilance and Anti Corruption Department of the State Government submitted charge-sheet against the respondents under Section 109 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 13(2) read with Section 13(1)(e) of the Act. It is relevant here to state that the offences punishable under the scheme of the Act have to be tried by a Special Judge and he may take cognizance of the offence without commitment of the accused and the Judge trying the accused is required to follow the procedure prescribed by the Code for the trial of warrant cases by the Magistrate. The Special Judge holding the trial is deemed to be a Court of Sessions. The respondents filed petition for discharge under Section 239 of the Code inter alia contending that the system which the p....
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....sed -1. Such a procedure adopted by the prosecution is not only unsustainable but also illegal. An independent and unbiased scrutiny of the entire documents furnished along with the final report would not make out any ground for framing of charge as against any of the accused persons. The methodology adopted by the prosecution to establish the disproportionate assets with reference to the known source of income is absolutely erroneous. xxx xxx xxx The theory of Benami is totally alien to the concept of trust and it is not legally sustainable to array the accused 3 to 5 as holders of the properties or that they are the benamies of the accused. The benami transaction has to be proved by the prosecution by producing legally permissible materials of a bona fide character which would directly prove the fact of benami and there is a total lack of materials on this account and hence the theory of benami has not been established even remotely by any evidence. On a prima-facie evidence it is evident that the other accused are possessed of sufficient funds for acquiring their properties and that A1 has nothing to do with those properties and that he cannot be called upon to explain the sou....
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....hat at the time of consideration of an application for discharge, nothing prevents the court to sift and weigh the evidence for the purpose of ascertaining as to whether the allegations made on the basis of the materials and the documents collected are groundless or not. They also contend that the court while considering such an application cannot act merely as a post-office or a mouthpiece of the prosecution. In support of the submission, reliance has been placed on a decision of this Court in the case of Sajjan Kumar v. CBI, (2010) 9 SCC 368 and our attention has been drawn to Paragraph 17(4) of the judgment, which reads as follows: "17. In Union of India v. Prafulla Kumar Samal & Anr., 1979 (3) SCC 4, the scope of Section 227 CrPC was considered. After adverting to various decisions, this Court has enumerated the following principles: xxx xxx xxx (4) That in exercising his jurisdiction under Section 227 of the Code the Judge which under the present Code is a senior and experienced court cannot act merely as a post office or a mouthpiece of the prosecution, but has to consider the broad probabilities of the case, the....
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....nsideration of an application for discharge, the court has to proceed with an assumption that the materials brought on record by the prosecution are true and evaluate the said materials and documents with a view to find out whether the facts emerging therefrom taken at their face value disclose the existence of all the ingredients constituting the alleged offence. At this stage, probative value of the materials has to be gone into and the court is not expected to go deep into the matter and hold that the materials would not warrant a conviction. In our opinion, what needs to be considered is whether there is a ground for presuming that the offence has been committed and not whether a ground for convicting the accused has been made out. To put it differently, if the court thinks that the accused might have committed the offence on the basis of the materials on record on its probative value, it can frame the charge; though for conviction, the court has to come to the conclusion that the accused has committed the offence. The law does not permit a mini trial at this stage. Reference in this connection can be made to a recent decision of this Court in the case of Sheoraj Singh Ahlawat ....
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....n 245(1) when, "the Magistrate considers, for reasons to be recorded that no case against the accused has been made out which, if not repudiated, would warrant his conviction". Section 227 and 239 provide for discharge before the recording of evidence on the basis of the police report, the documents sent along with it and examination of the accused after giving an opportunity to the parties to be heard. However, the stage of discharge under Section 245, on the other hand, is reached only after the evidence referred in Section 244 has been taken. Thus, there is difference in the language employed in these provisions. But, in our opinion, notwithstanding these differences, and whichever provision may be applicable, the court is required at this stage to see that there is a prima facie case for proceeding against the accused. Reference in this connection can be made to a judgment of this Court in the case of R.S. Nayak v. A.R. Antulay, (1986) 2 SCC 716. The same reads as follows: "43......Notwithstanding this difference in the position there is no scope for doubt that the stage at which the magistrate is require....