V.S. SIRPURKAR, J. - (1.) LEAVE granted.
(2.) THIS appeal is filed challenging the order of the High Court, whereby, the High Court has dismissed an application filed by the appellant herein under Section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code (hereinafter called "Cr.P.C." for short) for quashing the proceedings arising out of charge sheet of case No. 3045 of 2004 under Sections 420/467/468/471 of the Indian Penal Code (hereinafter called "IPC" for short), pending in the Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Rampur. This prosecution was initiated on the basis of the First Information Report (FIR) dated 27/2/2004 lodged by one Hargursharan Singh (complainant) against the appellant herein, alleging the offences under aforementioned Sections. As per the said complainant, by respondent no.2 one Amrinder Kaur and her husband Col. Hargobind Singh owned agricultural property, bearing Khata Nos. 40 and 2. They were unable to look after the property and, therefore, appointed Hargursharan Singh, respondent No. 2 herein (the real brother of Col. Hargobind Singh), as their general attorney. Respondent No. 2 herein, by virtue of general power of attorney, sold the aforementioned land and delivered possession to the purchasers. He described appellant-Parminder Kaur as a stranger. Two Civil Suits came to be filed by the appellant, Parminder Kaur, claiming to be holding Power of Attorney for Amrinder Kaur, against the purchasers. They were Civil Suit Nos. 266 of 2002 and 267 of 2002. In those Civil Suits, she prayed for the cancellation of the Sale Deeds. According to the prosecution, while instituting these suits on 27.5.2002, the appellant had filed a false affidavit that she had come to know regarding the Sale Deed only on 16.5.2002 and had obtained a certified copy of Revenue Record on 27.5.2002. According to the complainant, in fact, the appellant had actually moved for the certified copy of Khatauni on 6.5.2002 and had already received the copy on 7.5.2002. On that allegation, it was contended in the FIR that she had committed the offences as alleged. The High Court took the view that the FIR, as well as, the material collected by the prosecution were good enough at least to proceed and it could not be said that no offence was disclosed from the same. It is this judgment of the High Court, which is challenged before us. We have seen the FIR closely, on the basis of which the offences were registered. This report has been authored by respondent No. 2 Hargursharan Singh S/o Shri Gurbaksh Singh. It has been stated in this report that he held a power of attorney on behalf of one Col. Hargobind Singh and "Amrinder Kaur" and on that basis, he sold the land of Amrinder Kaur to one Col. Sarabjeet Singh S/o Avtar Singh and Namrata Chandi D/o Hargursharan Singh (i.e. the daughter of the complainant). It was pointed out that the registration was effected in the same year. Similarly, he had sold one other land of Col. Hargobind Singh to one Prabhjyot Singh S/o Teja Singh and Balbir Singh S/o Gurjit Singh. He also claimed that some other land out of the total land was also sold to one Manjeet Singh S/o Jagir Singh and Balbir Singh S/o Gurjit Singh. It was further asserted that the lands were in cultivation of the vendees. One "unrelated lady" Parminder Kaur W/o Col. Hargobind Singh, R/o Village Behait, Distt. Rampur, who had no right in the said land, had filed two Civil Suits, being Civil Suit Nos. 266 of 2002 and 267 of 2002 against Hargursharan Singh (the complainant) and also filed Civil Suit No. 268 of 2002 against Prabhjyot Singh in the Court of Civil Judge, Rampur. It was claimed that said suits were pending disposal. It was further claimed that the suits were filed by Parminder Kaur (appellant herein) and she supported the same with a false affidavit, in which she stated that she learnt about the sale of agricultural land on 16.5.2002 and immediately, she applied for the certified copy of the Revenue records, which were made available to her on 27.5.2002 and without any delay, she filed the present suit. It was pointed out further that Parminder Kaur (appellant herein) had already applied for certified copy of Revenue Records on 6.5.2002 and the same was made available to her on 7/5/2002. However, to overcome the limitation, she altered the date from 6/5/2002 to 16/5/2002 and 7/5/2002 to 17/5/2002 and 27/5/2002. It was further claimed in the said report that Parminder Kaur had filed Civil Suit No. 267 of 2002 in the capacity of power of attorney on behalf of "Amrinder Hargobind Singh" and in fact, she had no concern with the land in question. It was further pointed out that the real owners of the land had not objected to the sale of land and the sale was being objected to by Parminder Kaur, who was an "unrelated woman" and she had no right to interfere. It was then claimed that Parminder Kaur, in order to cause loss to the complainant, interpolated the dates of Revenue Records and, therefore, the documents were forged and the same were produced in the Court in order to defraud the Court and a false affidavit had been sworn in the Court and she was liable to be punished for the same. With the FIR, the affidavit dated 27.5.2002 sworn by Parminder Kaur in Suit Nos. 266 of 2002 and 268 of 2002 were filed alongwith other documents like Duplicate Khata No. 40, Duplicate Khatoni No. 40, Duplicate Khatoni Khata No. 2, Search Certificate dated 11/6/2002 of Office Asstt. Manager, Bilaspur, reply dated 10/6/2002 and 26/9/2002 and Form No.148 dated 6/5/2005 given to one Surender Kumar by Tehsildar for certified copy. It is on this basis that the offence was registered, investigated into and the chargesheet was filed against the present appellant Parminder Kaur.
(3.) THE present appellant Parminder Kaur is 74 years old lady. It is claimed in the Special Leave Petition that the present appellant, in fact is the wife of Col. Hargobind Singh and is having indifferent health. It is claimed that Parmindar Kaur is none else, but the complainant's brother's wife and it was she who had filed the three aforementioned suits, being Civil Suit Nos. 266 of 2002, 267 of 2002 and 268 of 2002 on 27.5.2002. It is pointed out in the Special Leave Petition that she had, in fact, applied for the certified copy of the Revenue Records and it was she who prosecuted the suits in her capacity as the wife of Col. Hargobind Singh. She also clarified that she had applied for the Revenue Records on 16/5/2002 and the same were made available to her on 27.5.2002 and she had given certified copies to her counsel Shri O.P. Gupta. Further she has pointed out that earlier the power of attorney was executed by husband of appellant, Col. Hargobind Singh in favour of the complainant/respondent No. 2 on 3/7/1970 with regard to the land in question, however, it was revoked on 29/7/1975. She then pointed out that her daughter Amrinder Kaur executed a power of attorney with regard to her land on 27.3.1991 and revoked the same in April, 1991. THE further claim is that after the certified copies of Revenue Records were given to her counsel Shri O.P. Gupta, she was asked at that time to put signatures on 40 blank papers. Her contention is that she had nothing to gain by altering the date on the certified copies by adding "1", i.e., making "16" instead of "6" and "17" instead of "7". She further alleged that at the instance of Shri O.P. Gupta, she was dubbed as a hardened criminal and two criminal cases were registered against her. She also points out that she was taken to Rampur from Chandigarh and she was dumped in a dark cell and she remained in the custody for about a week and was granted bail only by the District Judge, Rampur. Her contention is that all these were the schemes conceived by the respondent No. 2 to anyhow put her behind the bars. She points out that in one of the matters, respondent No. 2 Hargursharan Singh has claimed to be the owner on the basis of adverse possession of a land owned by her. She further points out that a mere look at the documents in Civil Suit could show that she was never in Rampur on 27.5.2002 when the plaint was supposed to have been filed. We have seen the papers filed alongwith the Special Leave Petition, viz., Annexure P-3 on Page 42 of the Special Leave Petition's Paper Book, wherein the date for submission of application has been shown to be 6.5.2002 and the date of delivery has been shown to be 7.5.2002. On the first page of the document, it is shown that the land of Col. Hargobind Singh S/o Gurbaksh Singh was transferred in the name of Manjeet Singh S/o Jagir Singh and Balbir Singh S/o Gurjit Singh on the basis of Sale Deed for Rs.2,78,000.00 On the second page of the Annexure, it is shown that the land of Col. Hargobind Singh stood transferred in the name of Prabhjyot Singh vide Sale Deed for Rs.4,60,000.;