Court : Supreme Court of India
Reported in : AIR1957SC414; [1957]1SCR295
Das, C.J. 1. This judgment will dispose of the above noted 18 several Civil Appeals filed in this Court on certificate of fitness granted by the High Court of Assam under Art. 132 of the Constitution of India. The appeals Nos. 346, 347, 348, 349 and 359 are directed against the judgment of the said High Court passed on May 23, 1956, in Civil Rules Nos. 26, 31, 32 and 33 of 1956 issued by the said High Court on several petitions filed under Art. 226 of the Constitution. The rest of the appeals arise out of nine other Civil Rules issued in nine other similar writ applications, which were disposed of by the judgment pronounced by the said High Court on June 12, 1956, which simply followed its previous judgment dated May 23, 1956. Each of these appeals raises the question of the vires of s. 3(3) of the Assam Revenue Tribunal (Transfer of Powers) Act, 1948 (Assam Act No. 4 of 1948) which is hereinafter referred to as 'the 1948 Act' and of the validity of the notification No. Rex. 184/52/39 ...
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
Reported in : AIR1957SC389; 1957(0)BLJR406; 1957CriLJ567; [1957]1SCR279
Jagannadhadas, J.1. These appeals arise out of an order of discharge passed by the Subordinate Judge-Magistrate of Dhanbad under s. 494 of the Code of Criminal Procedure on his consenting to the withdrawal of the Public Prosecutor from a prosecution pending before him in so far as it was against the appellant Mahesh Desai, one of the accused therein. The prosecution was launched on the first information of one Ram Naresh Pandey as against 28 persons about the commission of the murder of one Nand Kumar Chaubey, a peon of a colliery in Bagdigi, committed in the course of a serious riot on February 20, 1954. This was said to have resulted from differences between two rival labour-unions in connection with a strike. The prosecution as against most of the other persons is under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including s. 302, on the ground of their actual participation in the commission of the murder. But as against the appellant, Mahesh Desai, it is only under s. 302/109 of the...
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
Reported in : AIR1957SC373
Bhagwati , J. 1. The appellants Nos. 2 and 3, who are the surviving appellants after the death of appellant No. 1 during the pendency of this appeal, were charged with having committed offences under Sections 435 and 436 of the Indian Penal Code and were tried by the Second Assistant Sessions Judge of Saran, Chapra, with the aid of a jury. The jury returned a majority verdict that both of them were guilty of the offences under those sections. The Assistant Sessions Judge disagreed with the said verdict and made a reference to the High Court of Judicature at Patna under Section 307 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The said reference was heard by a Division Bench of that High Court. The learned judges of the High Court overruled the contentions which were urged before them in regard to the charge to the jury being defective and further held that the reference was, in the circumstances, not competent. They, however, without anything more accepted the majority verdict and held the appell...
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
Reported in : AIR1957SC594; 1957(0)BLJR470; 1957CriLJ894; (1957)35MysLJ(SC)117; [1957]1SCR321
Govinda Menon, J. 1. The police charge sheet dated November 13, 1949, which originated the proceedings out of which this appeal has arisen, was to the effect that the appellant, the Head Clerk of the Civil Surgeon's office at Almora, misappropriated a sum of money entrusted to him during a portion of the period he was functioning as Head Clerk. Though the charge-sheet did not specifically state the exact amount misappropriated, the matter was cleared up when the charge against him under s. 409, Indian Penal Code, was framed, namely, that between September 26, 1947, and February 11, 1948, he in his capacity as a public servant, having been entrusted with Rs. 1,118-10-9, committed criminal breach of trust in respect of that amount. This is also evident from the amounts detailed in column 3 of question 2 that had been put to him by the learned trial Magistrate. The trial court found that on account of the improper and unsatisfactory state of affairs in which the accounts were kept in the ...
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
Reported in : AIR1957SC376; (1957)ILLJ485SC
Bhagwati, J.1. This appeal with special leave under Article 136 of the Constitution arises out of a decision of the Labour Appellate Tribunal Calcutta, reversing the award of the Industrial Tribunal, Calcutta, and ordering the reinstatement of one Nanilal Mukherjee in the employ of the appellant with full pay and emoluments and continuity of service without break.2. Nanilal Mukherjee had been employed by the appellant on and from the 26th July 1944 as a Turbine Fitter. He continued in the said employ as a Turbine Fitter until July 1951 when the appellant mills were electrified. On such electrification some employees were discharged by the appellant as redundant. Nanilal Mukherjee would also have been similarly discharged, but he was retained in its employ by the appellant as he was a senior Mistry and the appellant intended to absorb him, if possible, in the new set up of mistries in the electrified mills. He was accordingly given a trial in the new set up for a sufficiently long time....
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
Reported in : AIR1957SC377; [1957]1SCR479
Bhagwati, J.1. This appeal with special leave arises out of a judgment of the Assam High Court in Revenue Appeal No. 33 (M) of 1955 and Civil Rule No. 76 of 1955.2. The State of Assam, respondent .No. 3, had settled the Charduar Brahmaputra Fishery with the respondent No. 1 for a period of three years, viz., from April 1, 1954. to March 31, 1957, at an annual zama of Rs. 19,600 under Rule 12 of the Fishery Rules. The Deputy Commissioner of Darrang, respondent No. 2, received some reports against the respondent No. 1 alleging violation of Clause VI of the Fishery lease and also of certain other conditions of the lease. He obtained, reports from the Sub-Deputy Collector and the Extra Assistant Commissioner in regard to these allegations and came to the conclusion that respondent No. 1 had created under-lease in favour of certain persons and cancelled the settlement of the fishery. It appears that after such cancellation, respondent No. 3, purporting to act again under Rule 12, settled th...
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
Reported in : AIR1957SC434; [1957]1SCR452
S.K. Das, J.1. This is an appeal by special leave from the judgment and decree of the High Court of Calcutta, dated April 6, 1950, by which the said High Court affirmed the judgment and decree of the Subordinate Judge of Asansol dated June 30, 1943, in Title Suit No. 2 of 1942. The suit was instituted by the four sons of one Ram Kishori Lal Sao, a resident of Asansol in Bengal, who died in September 1927. One of the plaintiffs, Kalicharan, died during the pendency of the suit and his heirs were brought on the record as plaintiffs in his stead. The defendants were Sumitra Devi, widow of the late Ram Kishori Lal, (defendant No. 1) and Kamala Devi, daughter of the late Ram Kishori Lal (defendant No. 2). The said defendants, 1 and 2, are the appellants before us. 2. The suit was instituted for a declaration that a deed of gift dated March 10, 1940, executed by Sumitra Devi in favour of her daughter Kamala Devi, was void and inoperative beyond the lifetime of Sumitra Devi and was not bindin...
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
Reported in : AIR1957SC357; 1957(0)BLJR750; (1957)59BOMLR395; [1957]1SCR438
Venkatarama Ayyar, J.1. This appeal arises out of a suit instituted by the appellants in the High Court of Bombay for damages for conversion estimated at Rs. 4,71,670-15-0. The suit was decreed by Shah J. sitting on the Original Side, but his judgment was reversed on appeal by Chagla C. J. and Gajendragadkar J. Against this judgment, the plaintiffs have preferred the present appeal on a certificate under Art. 133(1)(a) of the Constitution.2. Messrs. Maitland Craig Lubricants Ltd. is an American Company engaged in the manufacture and sale of lubricants. It carried on business in India with its head office at Calcutta and a branch office at Bombay. The second plaintiff, H.J. Leach, was employed during the years 1933 to 1935 in the Bombay branch of the said Company. Subsequent thereto, the Company closed its Bombay branch, and eventually wound up its Calcutta office as well, and thereafter its business was taken over firstly by Ewing and Company and then by the defendants. After he left t...
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
Reported in : AIR1957SC458; 1957(0)BLJR502; 1957CriLJ575; (1958)IILLJ645SC
Govinda Menon, J. 1. Though these three appeals have been filed against the decisions of different courts and are not connected either as regards community of purpose or the identity of the accused they have been heard together, because the points of law raised in them are identical and the arguments of counsel have proceeded on common lines. Hence a common judgment dealing with the legal aspect would be apt in the circumstances. 2. Criminal Appeal No. 42 of 1954 has been preferred by Om Prakash Gupta against the dismissal of his Revision Petition by the High Court of Allahabad, thereby affirming the appellate decision of the Sessions Judge of Kumaun who in his turn maintained the sentence of rigorous imprisonment for one year and a fine of Rs. 500 passed on the appellant by the Special 1st Class Magistrate of Nainital on April 30, 1953, under Section 409 of the Indian Penal Code. This appellant was a clerk in the Electric Department of Haldwani Municipal Board and the charge against h...
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
Reported in : AIR1957SC329a; (1957)ILLJ460SC
Bhagwati, J.1. These three appeals with special leave from the orders of the High Court of Punjab and three petitions under Art. 32 of the Constitution challenge the vires of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (XIV of 1947), hereinafter referred to as the Act. 2. The appellants in the three appeals are engaged in the manufacture and production of textiles. There were disputes between them and their workmen, and, by two notifications each dated March 4, 1955, in regard to the first two of them and by a notification dated February 25, 1955, in respect of the third, the State of Punjab, respondent No. 2, referred the said disputes for adjudication to the 2nd Punjab Industrial Tribunal, Amritsar, respondent No. 1, who entered upon the said references and issued notices to the appellants to file their written statements. The appellants in Civil Appeal No. 335 of 1955 filed their written statement on March 31, 1955, without prejudice to their contentions that respondent No. 2 was not competen...
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