TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1962 (10) TMI 66
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....e company was formed, it put in an application to the Government through its managing agents for the issue of a licence in its favour. Ex. P. W. 15/B is that application. On the advice given by the Government Advocate, the Government required Ram Kumar Ram to file a declaration attested by a Magistrate with regard to the transfer of his rights and the licence to the company. On April 8, 1948, Ram Kumar Ram filed a declaration to that effect. The case of the prosecution is that Ram Kumar Ram was a friend of the appellant. Pyarelal Bhargava, who was a Superintendent in the Chief Engineer's Office, Alwar. At the instance of Ram Kumar Ram, Pyarelal Bhargava got the file Ex. PA/ 1 from the Secretariat through Bishan Swarup, a clerk, before December 16, 1948, took the file to his house sometime between December 15 and 16,1948, made it available to Ram Kumar Ram for 'removing the affidavit filed by him on April 9, 1948, and the application, Ex. P. W. 15/B from the file and substituting in their place another letter Ex. PC and another application Ex. PB. After replacing the said documents, Ram Kumar Ram made an application to the Chief Engineer on December 24, 1948, that the licenc....
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....sed by any inducement, threat or promise; (2) the said threat, inducement or promise must have reference to the charge against the accused person; (3) it shall proceed from a personal authority; and (4) the court shall be of the opinion that the said inducement, threat or promise is sufficient to give the accused per-son grounds which would appear to him reasonable in supposing that he would gain an advantage or avoid any evil of a temporal nature in reference to the proceedings against him. The crucial word in the first ingredient is the expression " appears". The appropriate meaning of the word "appears" is "seems". It imports a lesser degree of probability than proof. Section 3 of the Evidence Act says: "A fact is said to be 'proved' when after considering the matters before it, the Court either believes it to exist, or considers its existence so probable that a prudent man ought, under the circumstances of the particular case, to act upon the supposition that it exists. Therefore, the test of proof is that there is such a high degree of probability that a prudent man would act on the assumption that the thing is true. But under s. 2....
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...., was questioned about the said documents. The appellant first made a statement, Ex. PL, in which he stated that he neither asked Bishan Swarup to bring file No. 127, nor did he recollect any cause for calling for that file on or about that date. As Shri Singhal was not able to find out the culprit, he expresser his opinion that if the whole truth did not come out, he would hand over the inquiry to the police. Thereafter, the appellant made a statement, Ex. P.L. 1, wherein, in clear terms, he admitted that about the middle of December 1948 Ram Kumar Ram took file No. 127- P. W./48 regarding issue of licence to the Bharat Electrical and Industrial Corporation Ltd., Alwar, from his residence to show it to his lawyers, and that he took the file more than once for that purpose. He also added that this was a voluntary statement. Learned counsel for the appellant argued that the Chief Secretary gave the threat that, if the appellant did not disclose the truth he would place the matter in the hands of the police and that the threat induced the appellant to make the disclosure in the hope that he would be excused by the authority concerned. There is no doubt that the Chief Secretary is an ....
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....is that on the facts found no case of theft has been made out. The facts found were that the appellant got the file between December 15 and 16, 1948, to his house, made it available to Ram Kumar Ram and on December 16, 1948, returned it to the office. On these facts it is contended that the prosecution has not made out that the appellant dishonestly took any movable property within the meaning of s. 378 of the Indian Penal Code. The said section reads : "Whoever, intending to take dishonestly any movable property out of the possession of any person without that person's consent, moves that property in order to such taking, is said to commit theft. The section may be dissected into its component parts thus : a person will be guilty of the offence of theft, (1) if he.- intends to cause a wrongful gain or a wrongful loss by unlawful means of Property to which the person gaming is not legally entitled or to which the person losing is legally entitled, as the case may be: see ss.23 and 24 of the Indian Penal Code; (2) the said intention to act dishonestly is in respect of movable property; (3) the said property shall be taken out of the possession of another person without h....