Siri Krishan Vs. State of Haryana - Court Judgment

Excerpt:
- sections 80 (2) & 89 & punjab motor vehicles rules, 1989, rules 85 & 80: [t.s. thakur, cj, jasbir singh & surya kant, jj] appeal against orders of state or regional transport authority imitation held, a stipulation regarding the period of limitation available for invoking the remedy shall have to be strictly construed. that is because any provision by way of limitation is in the nature of a restraint on the remedy provided under the act. so viewed two inferences are clear viz., (1) sections 80 and 89 of the act read with rule 85 of the rules make it obligatory for the authorities making the order to communicate it to the applicant concerned and (2) the period of limitation for any appeal against the order is reckonable from the date of such communication of the reasons would imply communication of a copy of the written order itself, a party who knows about the making of an order cannot ignore the same and allow grass to grow under its feet and do nothing except waiting for a formal communication of the order or to choose a tenuous plea that even though he knew about the order, he was waiting for its formal communication to seek redress against the same in appeal. if a party does not know about the making of the order either actually or constructively it may claim that the period of limitation would start running from the date it acquires knowledge of the making of an order but one cannot understand how a party, who has acquired knowledge of the making an order either directly or constructively can ignore the same and belatedly seek redress just because the authority making the order had made a default in formally communicating the order to him. allowing a party to do so would amount to placing a premium on the lack of diligence of a party, who is remiss in seeking a remedy that was available to it. therefore, knowledge whether actual or construction of the order passed by the state or regional transport authority should result in commencement of the period of limitation. thus,. in cases where the state or regional transport authority has not communicated the order of refusal passed to the persons concerned, the period of limitation for filing an appeal would commence from the date when the parties concerned acquire knowledge of passing of the said order. - 3 and that there was a strong demand of colour television, fridge and motor cycle and the deceased also told her relations and her parents that she had been putting them off saying that the valuables would be delivered after harvesting the paddy crop but the appellants were not relenting and were insisting upon the same. 4 have stated that the deceased mithlesh had been complaining right from the very beginning of the marriage that the siri krishan and kamla have been expecting valuables like television, motorcycle and fridge etc. she was fed up with such treatment which was being meted out to her that one would be compelled to end one's life or even the life of such a person may be taken by the people like the appellant when the object of greed overtakes the normal living. the defence has explained this situation by taking a plea as well as the argument that in fact the deceased wantedher husband to leave his own parents' house and start living with her parents. it was a marriage of just two years old and the only conclusion which could be drawn was the only one that the deceased was being maltreated and was being put to cruelty by the husband and mother-in-law as a result of which the deceased died in abnormal circumstances and the appellants failed to explain the circumstances in which the death took place while the prosecution has been able to prove the same.a.s. garg, j. 1. this criminal appeal relates to a dowry death case in which the learned trial judge has convicted siri krishan, the husband and smt. kamla, the mother-in-law of the deceased under section 304b of tre indian penal code. siri krishan was sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life whereas smt. kamla was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for seven years. however, mohinder singh accused, the husband of the sister of siri krishan i.e. brother-in-law was acquitted.2. smt. mithlesh was married with siri krishan accused in the year 1991. she belonged to village saimpath, district muzaffar nagar (u.p.) and the appellant belongs to village kiwana, in the area of police station, samalkha, in district panipat. on 25.8.1993, mithlesh was found dead at her in-laws' house in village kiwana. a report ex.pb was lodged by ram kumar pw.2, a real brother of the deceased with the allegations that the deceased had been sent to their house after being beaten and mal-treated by the appellants and that the deceased mithlesh narrated the entire incident of her maltreatment and torture to her parents and brothers ram kumar pw.2 and bishamber pw.3 and that there was a strong demand of colour television, fridge and motor cycle and the deceased also told her relations and her parents that she had been putting them off saying that the valuables would be delivered after harvesting the paddy crop but the appellants were not relenting and were insisting upon the same. however, the husband and other relations including mohinder singh, brother-in-law of the deceased and the members of the community approached the parents of the deceased for a rapprochement and as a result of which the deceased returned to her in-laws' house about 16/17 days earlier to the occurrence. when ram kumar pw.2 came to enquire about the welfare of his sister on 25.8.1993 he was shocked to know that his sister was no more and he immediately returned to his native village to inform his relations and lodged the aforesaid report ex.pb before si rajinder singh pw.8 and on its basis formal fir was recorded at 5.15 p.m. on 25.8.1993. the special report reached the ilaqa magistrate at 7.55 p.m. on 25.8.1993.3. after recording the statement of ram kumar pw.2, si rajinder singh pw.8 went to the place of occurrence. he summoned a photographer and got the dead body of mithlsh photographed. thereafter, he prepared inquest report ex.pa/2 and sent the dead body for post mortem. the said sub inspector inspected the spot and prepared rough site plan ex.pj. he also recorded the statements of the witnesses under section 161 of the code of criminal procedure. on 2.9.1993, siri krishan, mohinder singh and smt. kamla accused were produced before him by mahi pal, ex-sarpanch at the bus stop. he arrested them. siri krishan appellant was interrogated in the presence of amar singh pw.7 and lachhman. he made a disclosure statement ex.pe that he had kept concealed one jamper, one salwar and an underwear of the deceased underneath the dung cakes in the rear room of the 'taand' and in pursuance of the said statement he got recovered jamper ex.pl, salwar ex.p2 and underwear p3 from the specified place which were taken into possession vide memo ex.pg. similarly, mohinder singh on interrogation made a disclosure statement ex.pf that he had kept concealed a towel underneath the chaff in the kothaof the house of his father-in-law baru ram and in pursuance thereof he got recovered towel ex.p4 from the specified place which was taken into possession vide memo ex.ph. the said sub inspector on 2.9.1993 took into possession various articles of dowry given in the marriage of the deceased from the house of the accused in the presence of chanderbhan and rain kumar pws on the pointing out by the latter vide recovery memo ex.pc. after completion of the investigation, the accused were put to trial.4. dr. tajender kharbanda pw. 1 conducted post mortem on the dead body of mithlesh deceased on 26.8.1993 at 10.30 a.m. and observed as under :-a dead body of a young female, moderately built and was moderately nourished, face wasswollen and very congested, blood fluid was coming from the mouth and nostrils i.e. was present. the tongue was swollen and was present between the teeth. eyes were swollen. conjuctiva was congested. foul smell from the body was present. maggots were present on the face and side of neck. faecal matter was present outside the anus. both abdominal flanks were green in colour, abdomen was swollen. dead body was wearing salwar and kameej. rigor mortis was absent in the upper limbs and was in the descending stage in the lower limbs'. pealing and superficial skin was present on the front and lateral side of the neck.the following injuries were also found on the dead body :-(1) an abrasion with contusion 1.5cm x 1.25 cm on the left side of front of the neck above the level of the thyroid cartilage. on cut section exudation of blood underlying the injury was seen. (2) two contusion 0.75 cm x 0.5 cm each on the right side of the front of neckjust at (he level of upper end of the thyroid cartilage. on cut section exudation of blood underlying the injury was found present. on dissection of the neck a fracture of the cornu of left side of thyroid cartilage was seen. clotted blood was found present on the surrounding tissues. (3) multiple abrasions of different size in shape on the back of right elbow joint. on cut section exudation of blood underlying it was found present. (4) an abrasion with contuision 3cm x 1.5 cm on the back of left elbow joint. on cut section exudation of blood underlying it was found present. 5. the death in ihe opinion of the doctor was caused due to asphyxia as a result of throttling. the injuries were sufficient to cause death in the ordinary course of nature. ex.pa is the copy of the post mortem report.6. at the trial the appellants claimed that they were innocent and in fact the deceased had committed suicide of her own by strangulation and they did not commit her murder.7. mohinder singh accused, the brother-in-law of the deceased stated that he was living separately at village kheri raiwali, at a distance of about 100 kilometers from the village where the deceased used to live and had no concern. with the help of defence witnesses, namely, om parkash kundu dw. 1, harikesh patwari dw.2 and madan lal, election kanungo dw.3 mohinder singh accused was able to prove on record that he has a ration card at village kheri raiwali and paying chulha tax and that his name was mentioned in the voter list of his village. on account of this overwhelming evidence he was acquitted of the charges framed against him.8. the version of the aforesaid two appellants was not believed by the learned trial judge and on the testimony of ram kurnar p w.2, bishamber pw.3 and mula p w.4 coupled with the medical evidence convicted and sentenced the appellants as indicated above.9. ram kumar pw.2, bishamber pw.3 and mula pw.4 have stated that the deceased mithlesh had been complaining right from the very beginning of the marriage that the siri krishan and kamla have been expecting valuables like television, motorcycle and fridge etc. despite the fact that already a decent marriage was performed. the witnesses have also stated that the deceased used to be beaten and was being insisted to arrange the valuables from her parents. this led to bitterness between the husband and the deceased to the extent that it became a routine with the appellants to mal-treat and torture the deceased. ram kumar pw.2 also supported the prosecution case. this witness went to the extent of saying that when the deceased happened to come to their house about 2-1/2 months prior to the occurrence, she had specifically stated that her hands were twisted by the appellants though there was no apparent mark of injury. bishamber pw.3 also stated in detail that the deceased was being put to a lot of harassment. she was fed up with such treatment which was being meted out to her that one would be compelled to end one's life or even the life of such a person may be taken by the people like the appellant when the object of greed overtakes the normal living. the defence has explained this situation by taking a plea as well as the argument that in fact the deceased wantedher husband to leave his own parents' house and start living with her parents. this way of life was not suitable to the husband and when he refused to do so, the wife committed suicide. however, there is no evidence that either the brother or her parents ever had shown any such an inkling that their son-in- law should live with them. there is absolutely no evidence to that effect led by the defence nor suggested to the prosecution witnesses that they ever asked the son-in-law to live with them. even otherwise in such a circumstance the wife instead of being sent to her parents' home if so serious about it may abandon the married life itself and atleast would not resort to suicide. it was a marriage of just two years old and the only conclusion which could be drawn was the only one that the deceased was being maltreated and was being put to cruelty by the husband and mother-in-law as a result of which the deceased died in abnormal circumstances and the appellants failed to explain the circumstances in which the death took place while the prosecution has been able to prove the same. there is nothing unusual that the brother of the deceased first went to inform his relations and then came back and lodged the report with the police. both siri krishan and kamla lived with the deceased in heir native village. none else lived with them.10. so the evidence on record produced by the prosecution completely falls within the abmit of the provisions of section 304b of the indian penal code. we do not find any justification to interfere with the conviction and sentence passed by the learned trial judge and the same is affirmed.12. for the reasons recorded above, the appeal fails and is dismissed.13. appeal dismissed.