the appellants plea in defence was that the thumb impressions were number his and alternatively if the thumb impressions were his he put them on the authority of persons.
this led to an inquiry and as a result of this several cases were started against various persons and the appellants case is one of them.
appeal under article 134 1 c of the companystitution of india from the judgment and order dated the 21st march 1952 of the high companyrt of judicature at calcutta das gupta and lahiri jj.
the government reached the decision that these cases were number fit for trial by jury and accordingly on 24th february 1947 a numberification was issued for trial of these cases by the companyrt of sessions with the aid of assessors.
in pursuance of this numberification the appellant along with six others was sent up for trial before the additional sessions judge of burdwan.
he was one of the persons appointed by jnanendra nath choudhuri an agent and it was his duty to disburse the money to the mates in charge of the gangs and to take thumb impressions on pay sheets in token of receipt of payment.
whereas by a numberification dated the 27th march 1893 published in the calcutta gazette of the same date it was ordered that on and after the 1st day of april 1893 the trial of certain offences under the indian penal companye before any companyrt of session in certain districts including the district of burdwan shall be by jury and whereas by numberification number 3347 1 dated the 22nd september 1939 published at page 2505 of part i of the calcutta gazette of the 28th september 1939 it was ordered that on and from the 1st day of january 1940 the trial of certain other offences under the indian penal companye before any companyrt of session shall be by jury and whereas certain persons are alleged to have committed offences under sections 120 b 420467 468 471 and 477 a of the indian penal companye in a set of cases knumbern as the burdwan test relief fraud cases of whom the accused persons in two cases namely emperor v. dhirendra nath chatterjee and others and 2 emperor v. golam rahman and others have been companymitted to the companyrt of session at burdwan for trial and the accused persons in the remaining cases may hereafter be companymitted to the said companyrt for trial number therefore the governumber in exercise of the power conferred by subsection 1 of section 269 of the code of criminal procedure 1898 is pleased to revoke the said numberifications in so far as they apply to the trial of the offences with which the accused in the said cases are charged in the companyrt of session.
in criminal appeal number 77 of 1950 arising out of the judgment and order dated the 29th april 1950 of the companyrt of the additional sessions judge burdwan in session trial number i of 1950.
the charge against him was under section 420 read with section 120 b indian penal code for companyspiracy to cheat the district board of burdwan and some of its officers in charge of the test relief operations between the 21st may and the 21st july 1943.
the numberification is in these terms number 4591 17th february 1947.
criminal appellate jurisdiction criminal appeal number 48 of 1952.
the government of bengal sanctioned four lakhs of rupees as advance to the district board for such test relief operations.
the appeal companycerns one of a series of cases knumbern generally as the burdwan test relief fraud cases which had their origin in the test relief operations held in the district of burdwan in 1943 during the bengal famine of that year.
whose names were shown against the thumb impressions and that in putting these thumb impressions he did number act dishonestly or fraudulently.
it was alleged that the appellant put his own thumb impressions in several cases mentioned in the charges with full knumberledge that numberpayment had been made and put names of imaginary persons against the thumb impressions to make it appear that payments had been made to real persons and by this process had obtained wrongful gain for himself and for his employers.
this was in clear violation of the bengal famine companye and the famine manual 1941 and as exceedingly large sums were being spent the suspicions of the government were aroused about the bona fides of the test relief work carried out through their agent.
the judgment of the companyrt was delivered by mehr chand mahajan c.j.
n. joshi and p. g. gokhale for the intervener the union of india .
the district board however instead of conducting the relief work directly appointed several agents on companymission basis through whom the test relief operations were carried out.
sen and i. n. shroff for the respondent.
c. chakravarti and sukumar ghose for the appellant.
the appellant was also charged on 24 companynts of forgery under section 467 indian penal companye and the case for the prosecution against the appellant on these companynts was that he companymitted forgery by putting his own thumb impressions on pay sheets on which the thumb impressions of persons who received payment for work done on a road which was constructed as part of a scheme for the relief of the people in burdwan ought to have been taken.
april 20.
this is an appeal under article 134 1 c of the companystitution of india from the judgment of the high companyrt at calcutta dated the 21 st of march 1952 whereby the high companyrt upheld the companyviction of the appellant under section 467 of the indian penal companye but reduced the sentence passed upon him by the additional sessions judge of burdwan.
the acute scarcity and the prevailing distress of the famine stricken people in the district called for immediate relief and test relief operations were undertaken by the district board in pursuance of the advice of the district magistrate.
