Sikkim Court November 2000 Judgments

State of Sikkim Vs. Sameer Ahmed and ors.

Court: Sikkim

Reported in: 2001CriLJ2680

Ripusudan Dayal, C.J.1. This appeal has been filed by the State under Section 377 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for enhancement of sentence. The accused persons were tried by the learned Judicial Magistrate, East and were charged under Sections3, 5 and 6 of the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978 (hereinafter referred to the Act) and all of them were sentenced to a fine of Rs. 3,000/- each and in default to undergo simple imprisonment for a term of one year on the plea of guilty. Besides, accused No. 1, namely, Sameer Ahmed was directed to be released under Section 4 of the Probation of Offenders Act. The order is startling in more than one respect. If an accused was to be released on probation, there was no question of his being sentenced of fine. There was also no question of framing charge under Sections3 and 6 of the Act, since they do not provide for any punishment. Section 3 prohibits a person from promoting and conducting any prize chit or money cir...