Court raps UT magistrate for acting in ‘very casual manner’

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has rapped a UT Judicial Magistrate First Class for acting in “a very casual manner” while conducting a trial in a cheating and forgery case reported to the police by Panjab University.

File photo

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 20

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has rapped a UT Judicial Magistrate First Class for acting in “a very casual manner” while conducting a trial in a cheating and forgery case reported to the police by Panjab University. The rap came on a petition filed by the university against the Chandigarh Administration.

The case has its genesis in a criminal trial pertaining to a case registered by the Chandigarh Police on September 7, 2015, for criminal breach of trust, cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy under Sections 408, 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B of the IPC. The case was registered on a complaint of the university with the Sector 11 police station.

Taking up the matter in August last year, Justice Ramendra Jain of the High Court had referred to the case file before asserting that its perusal showed the trial court was conducting the proceedings in the criminal trial in a “very casual manner”.

Elaborating, Justice Jain had asserted that the trial court had been granting repeated exemptions from personal appearance to the accused “for no rhyme or reason whatsoever without bothering about the seriousness of the accusation against the accused of misappropriating huge funds of the petitioner”.

Justice Jain had observed that the amount was Rs 71,74,788 in 2014-2015 and Rs 91,50,029 during 2015-2016. The total came out to be Rs 1,63,24,817”. Before adjourning the hearing in the case, Justice Jain had directed the trial court to furnish its explanation for “granting unnecessary adjournments repeatedly without caring for the gravity of the alleged offence”.

As the case came up for resumed hearing, Justice Jain said separate reports had been received from the Judicial Magistrate First Class and UT Chief Judicial Magistrate Abhishek Phutela in compliance with the order dated August 28, 2018.

After perusing the reports, Justice Jain asserted that the JMIC had acted in a very casual manner while conducting the trial. On the other hand, “the conduct of Abhishek Phutela, CJM, is not questionable, as the officer is making the best possible efforts to conclude the trial”.