W.Broome, J. - (1.) This revision application is directed against an order passed on 16-9-1956 by Sri T. C. Hingorani, Special Railway Magistrate, Meerut, acquitting the opposite-party Narsingh Bahadur in a case under Section 112 of the Railways Act. Along with it is another application (under Section 561-A Cri. P. C.) praying for the expunction of certain strictures passed in the judgment on the conduct of S. P. Dubey, Ticket Examiner, and G. P. Misra, Assistant Commercial Officer (Tickets) of the Northern Railway.
(2.) The prosecution allegations were that on 25-8-1958 the opposite-party Narsingh Bahadur was detected by Ticket Examiner S. P. Dubey at Prayag Railway Station travelling without ticket in a third class compartment of the Pratapgarh-Allahabad Down passenger train. The defence plea on the other hand, was that the opposite-party had not travelled in the said train but had merely come on to the station platform to meet a friend, who was arriving by that train.
(3.) The alleged offender was produced before the Railway Magistrate Sri Hingorani, pleaded not guilty and asked for postponement of the trial. The Magistrate accordingly adjourned the case to 28-8-1958, intimating that the trial would be held at Meerut Cantonment. Subsequently, however, on the request made by the accused-opposite-party in a letter the Magistrate agreed to hold the trial at Allahabad and on 28-8-1958 passed the following order : "Request granted. Put up the case at Allahabad when I encamp there. Accused to be then called there." It appears that the Magistrate did not find it convenient to come to Allahabad till the following year. On 10-7-1959 he directed that the case would be heard in the Officers' rest-house at Allahabad on 28-7-1959; but on that date the accused put in an application asking for the case to be tried in the regular way, not summarily, and it was accordingly adjourned to the following day. Then, however, the Magistrate decided to hear the case on 29-8-1959 at Ghaziabad and the witnesses were ordered to be summoned for that date. From the detailed order passed by the Magistrate later on, it appears that summonses were issued on 11-8-1959 to S. P. Dubey (the Ticket Examiner who had detected the accused committing the crime) and to Moti Ram Kalra (the official who had signed the formal complaint) through the General Manager, Northern Railway, New Delhi; but these notices do not seem to have returned and there is nothing on the file to suggest that they were ever served. The result was that no one appeared for the prosecution on 29-8-1959. Again the accused applied by letter for his trial to be held at Allahabad, and the Magistrate agreed and fixed 15-9-1959. Summonses were again issued on 3-9-1959, but on 15-9-1959 no one appeared for the prosecution, and the learned Magistrate, without even waiting for the notices to come back, decided to dispose of the case. The accused, however, was also absent on that day and so the case could not be taken up until the following day (16-9-1959), when the statements of the accused and his witnesses were recorded, in the absence of any representative of the prosecution, and the Magistrate, holding the charge to bo unsubstantiated, false and vexatious, acquitted the accused and at the same time severely castigated the conduct of S. P. Dubey and G. P. Misra, who according to him were guilty of wrongfully arresting and detaining the accused on a trumped-up charge.;