TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2011 (1) TMI 1579
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....used for signatures of others have difference. However, in the re-examination, he has stated that Kali and Elumalai signed, exerting pressure and the difference occurred due to this. Hence, the suit pro-note has to be sent for ascertaining whether there are differences between the inks used for signatures in the suit pro-note and other printed form. 3. In the counter filed by the Respondent, it is stated that the petition is not maintainable and that by means of document examination, the period of writing could not be accurately ascertained. The Petitioner has not produced any registered documents of contemporaneous period to that of the suit pro-note for comparison of ink. The petition has been filed to procrastinate the proceedings. On 30.06.2008, the suit was filed. The Plaintiff's witnesses were examined and the case was posted for Defendant's witness on 18.06.2009. There is no explanation in the affidavit, for what reason this petition has been filed one year after the date of filing of the suit. The opinion of the handwriting expert is not conclusive. Hence, the petition may be dismissed. 4. The Court below dismissed the application by observing that no valid gr....
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....at a Magistrate holding an inquiry under Code of Criminal Procedure in respect of an offence triable by him does not exceed his powers under Section 243(2) if, in the interest of justice, he directs to send the document for enabling the same to be compared by a handwriting expert to compare the disputed signature or writing with the admitted writing or signature of the accused and to reach his own conclusion with the assistance of the expert. The Appellant is entitled to rebut the case of the Respondent and if the document viz. the cheque on which the Respondent has relied upon for initiating criminal proceedings against the Appellant would furnish good material for rebutting that case, the Magistrate having declined to send the document for the examination and opinion of the handwriting expert has deprived the Appellant of an opportunity of rebutting it. The Appellant cannot be convicted without an opportunity being given to her to present her evidence and if it is denied to her, there is no fair trial. "Fair trial" includes fair and proper opportunities allowed by law to prove her innocence. Adducing evidence in support of the defence is a valuable right. Denial of that right mea....
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....a chemical test. Besides we may add that Osborn on "Questioned Documents" at page 464 says even with respect to chemical tests that "the chemical tests to determine the age also, as a rule are a mere excuse to make a guess and furnish no reliable data upon which a definite opinion can be based. In these circumstances, the mere opinion of the expert cannot override the positive evidence of the attesting witnesses in a case like this where there are no suspicious circumstances. 11(a). In the case before the Supreme Court, the expert did not perform any chemical test. Hence the Supreme Court has observed as above. Even in the said authority "Questioned Document" by Albert S. Osborn, the other portions were looked into and referred to by the learned Judge of Andhra Pradesh in his decision above. The extraction of relevant excerpts of the authority in the decision in Uppu Jhansi Lakshmi Bai's case is as follows: There are those also who pretend to say how old a writing is by merely examining it with a hand magnifier or a microscope. This always is an exhibition either of ignorance or of dishonest presumption. The chemical tests to determine age also, as a rule, are a mer....
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....hen the opinion of expert cannot prevail. 12. On a later occasion, this Court in a judgment in 2010 (1) CTC 424 R. Jagadeesan v. N. Ayyasamy and Anr., has opined that sending the documents for opinion in respect of the age of the writing on documents should not be resorted to hereinafter by the Courts unless, in future, due to scientific advancements, new methods are invented to find out the age of the writings. The learned Judge has sought for aid of the learned Additional Public Prosecutor of this Court to gain the view of the responsible officials in the Forensic Science Department, Chennai, on this issue. Accordingly, before the learned Judge, one Mr. A.R. Mohan, Assistant Director, Document Division, Forensic Science Department appeared. The learned Judge quizzed him as to the present practice in the Forensic Science Department for settling the issue. The following is the text in this context as regards the statement made by the above said Assistant Director before the learned Judge: 7. ...According to him, he is the Head of the document division of the department. On a query made by this Court regarding the above position, he would explain to this Court that there....
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....o Q5, signature and writing, are all done by using ball point pen. 7. ...The hand writing expert D.W.I has filed report Ex.D.3 and also stated in his evidence that in the cheque Ex.P. 1, the writings Q1 and Q2 were made by using ink whereas Q3 to Q5 were made by using ball point pen and in the writing marked as Ql, there is a decolourisation of the figures 1993 and the figure 'I' in the month 25-12-1993 marked as Ql, has been inserted with different ink. Therefore, as rightly argued by the learned Counsel for the accused and as rightly pointed out by the Metropolitan Magistrate, there have been material alteration in the date of cheque by adding ' 1' before '2' in the month to make it appear that the cheque was issued on 25.12.1993 so as to bring the cheque within the validity period for the purpose of limitation. 14. The above mentioned decision brings to light that the questioned documents as regards the difference in ink were referred to the Forensic Science Laboratory in this State which were subjected to ink examination and the expert who performed the test deposed before the Court and stated about the tests undertaken by him. Hence, the sta....
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....ccused, the witnesses, or the cause which is being tried, is eliminated. The failure to hear material witness is certainly denial of 'fair trial' Zahira Habibulla H. Sheikh v. State of Gujarat (2004) 4 SCC 158, 184 para 36 18. This Court has waded through various authorities specifically on this subject and found out that the procedures of investigation and demonstrations are very much at hand for ascertaining the age of the ink, which should have been adopted by the experts in our country contained in upto date treatise. 19.(a) Nature of examination of ink of various categories and different experiments performed by the renowned chemists and the reagents to be utilised for such experiments have been graphically narrated in the latest edition in Bhuvan's "Examination of Disputed Documents" (2010 edition). The excerpts in the said authority in pages 214, 222, 223, 225 and 226 are as follows: 7. Age of Ink.-.... (1).... (2).... (3) Diffusion pictures.- Inks often contain sulphate or chloride ions from the acids added to it. They diffuse into the paper with passage of time. If the paper is treated with lead acetate or silv....
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....examined, and observing the changes of colour produced where the ink and the reagent meet. The chief reagents given by the authors names are: 1. Solution of 3 per cent of oxalic acid in water. 2. Do. of 10" of citric acid in water 3. Do. of 2" of chloride of potassium in water 4. Solution of one part of proto-chloride of tin with one part of hydrochloric acid in 10 parts of water. 5. Solution of 15 per cent of sulphuric acid. 6. Do of 10" of hydrochloric acid. 7. Do. of 20" of nitric acid. 8. Solution of anhydrous sulphuric acid in water. 9. Solution of 4 per cent chloride of gold in water. 10. Do. of one part of ferrocyanide of potassium with one part of hydrochloric acid in 10 parts of water. 11. Solution of one part of thiosulphate of sodium with one part of ammonia and 10 parts of water. 12. Solution of 4 per cent of sodium hydrate in water. 10. Methods of Examination of inks: The method commonly used for studies of inks are: (1)Visual Examination: Visual examination must be done with light falling at various angles and in transmitted light. The colour a....
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....means of Thin layer Chromatography (TLC). The use TLC separates out the dyestuffs constituents and proved handy for ink analysis of questioned documents. This method is most frequently used for analysis of inks. (9) Electrophoresis: The solution of inks are subjected to electrical field created by supply of electricity. The dyestuffs constituents of inks separates in band and make it possible to identified different dyestuffs used in manufacturing of inks. 19.(b) The author has reflected above opinions on the strength of the following books of various authors: 1. Dr. B.R. Sharma, Forensic Science in Criminal Investigation & Trials, Fourth Edition with Supplement. 2. B.S. Nabar, Forensic Science in Crime Investigation, Reprint Edition,2008 3. John Adam & J. Collyer Adam, Criminal Investigation, Third Edition. 19(c) The author has detailed in the above book that the following are the often used ink categories: (i) Iron Tannate inks: Iron gallotannate ink is a mixture of tannic acid and gallic acid extracted from wood and when mixed witfi ferrous salts, gives a colourless liquid, which on drying gives black colour. It is, therefore, m....
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....timation of the age of the dyestuff writing is one of the urgent unsolved problems confronting the document examiner. (page 218) 21.(c) Insofar as Iron Gallotannate Ink Writing is concerned, the ink line exhibits and interesting series of colour changes as it ages, and it is largely because of this that many think that it is possible to determine the age of an ink writing from the colour. (page 219). 21.(d) Another passage in page No. 220 is as under: with a genuine document several years old, the colour of the ink will show no appreciable change over a week or so, but any darkening as shown by an increase in the red component will afford conclusive evidence that the writing is more recent than alleged. 21.(e) Even the age of dyestuff ink writing can be determined as per the author who has come out with the following version in page 124 of the book. Aged Ink: As an ink ages, the dyestuffs therein slowly decompose, until nothing but a crust of ferric oxide remains. At this stage, the chromatogram of anything which can be extracted from the ink line will bear little resemblance to that derived from the original ink. It might appear, therefore, that....
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....xplanatory. 23 .(b) The aforenoted opinions of the reputed authors on this subject as narrated above would make it abundantly clear that it is not impossible to discover age of the ink. Hence, the plea that the procedures have not evolved so far in this country is no longer available and it cannot be acceded to. Going by the above clippings in the authorities, it transpires that it is not at all difficult task to step into the experiments under the guidelines of illustrious experts in this field. The authorities and the officials concerned have to take initiatives to evolve procedures for experiments with latest technology for achieving improvement on the subject. 24. On the basis of choosy and discerning performance of researches, the authors have provided procedures and devices, with reference to the names of chemicals and reagents to be utilised, to solve the issue and it is incumbent upon the experts to put the authoritative theories and the latest proved and established technologies to empirical use. They have to take the inventiveness drawing the proven and accepted principles from well settled authorities and the Government have to provide necessary latest infrastructu....
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....The advancements in establishing the facts in this field as a science continue through today. The explosion of modern technology has influenced every facet of our lives, from introducing new avenues of written communications to improvements in ink and ergonomic design of writing instruments. 27. The above said discussion on the strength of the authorities available before the Court is only indicative, not exhaustive. It is not a sole-source training manual. 28. Adverting to the facts of the present case, since various scientific avenues are available for finding out the age of the ink in a document, it must be subjected to tests as suggested by various scientists. I follow the ratio in the decisions in Kalyani Baskar's case and T. Nagappa's case above, and direct to refer the disputed document to such examination in order to provide an opportunity when a good material is available, to rebut the presumption as per law, by non-destructive method in this regard.(Emphasis supplied). 29. If the expert concerned considers that such examination would destruct a part of the document or the document itself, they may report the fact before the Court and the Court thereafter ....