N. C. SHARMA, J. - (1.) THIS order will dispose of Criminal Revisions No. 106 and 107 of 1979 filed by Chandan Lal Agarwal against two orders of Judicial Magistrate, Nawa both dated January 29, 1979 passed by him accepting final reports Nos. 14 and 15 of 1979 submitted by the Officer-in-charge, Police Station, Nawa after rejecting the protest petitions filed by the petitioner.
(2.) FACTS leading to the filing of these revisions are that on February 10, 1978 petitioner Chandan Lal Agarwal filed a criminal complaint against Nand Lal Mor with the allegations that he was proprietor of M/s. Rajasthan Gum and Plastic Factory, Nawa (Kuchaman Road), which manufactured "guwar Churi", corma, cattle, feed and ''guwar gum". Non-petitioner Nandlal Mor used to work as a temporary manager to look after the factory. On January 25, 1977 the non-petitioner misusing his position, as temporary Manager represented himself as selling agent of, the factory and without the knowledge of the petitioner; received amounts of Rs. 2000/-, Rs. 2100/r and Rs. 1500/- respectively from Hari Bandhubohol of Shergarh, district. Baleshwar (Orissa), Antaryami Chaudhary of Baran Khoonta district Mayurganj (Orissa) and M/s S. R. Moondra of Naya Bazar, Distt, Balasore (Orissa), agreeing with them respectively to supply them 50 quintals "guwar churi" ,at Rs. 95,/- per quintal,! 41 quintals guwar corma at Rs. i02/-'per quintal and 51 bags of , "guwar churi" weighing 75 kilo grams each bags at Rs. 95/- per quintal and further (issued receipt of the advance arhounts received by him on the printed letter-pad of the petitioner's factory. It was alleged that, the petitioner had never appointed the non-petitioner as selling agent and had never authorised him to supply the goods manufactured tin the factory of the petitioner after receiving advance amounts from customers. The non-petitioner neither got these transactions entered into by him in the book of accounts of the factory nor got credited the, receipts of advance amounts from the above-named three customers. These customers made correspondence '•at the address of the petitioners factory insisting for supply the goods agreed to be supplied which correspondence letters were also kept back by the non-petitioner and the transactions were cancelled from the petitioner. On coming to know1 of some improper acts of the non-petitioner, the petitioner removed the former from the post of temporary manager. There after the petitioner obtained full information about non-receipt of goods, ordered by the said customers when after seeing the records, he found that no such-transactions were entered 'in the records, he made enquiries and came: to know that the non-petitioner misrepresenting himself as selling agent of the petitioner's factory had received advance amounts from these. customers by cheating them and causing wrongful loss to the petitioner by misappropriating the amounts received as advance. He also1 impersonated himself as selling agent of the petitioner's factory by issuing receipts of advence amounts to the customers. It was stated by the petitioner in his complaint that the non-petitioner had committed offence punishable under Section 420, 467,'406, 408 and 409, I. P. C. This criminal complaint was sent by the Judicial Magistrate Nawa to the Police under Sec. 156 (3) Cr. P. C. for investigation. After investigation, the officer-in-charge, Police Station, Nawa gave final report No. 15 dated July 31, 1978. The petitioner submitted a protest petition before the Judicial Magistrate, Nawa on August 9,1978. The Judicial Magistrate, Nawa, after hearing the petitioner's counsel on the protest petition, rejected it on January 29, 1979 and refused to take cognizance of the offences alleged to have been committed by the non-petitioner. It is against this order that the petitioner has filed Criminal Revision No. 106 of 1979 in this Court. The petitioner Chandanlal Agarwal had filed one more criminal complaint on February 27, 1978 against non-petitioners Nandlal, and his sons Ramesh and Natwar Lal out of which Criminal Revision No. 107 of 1979 has arisen. In this criminal complaint, the petitioner alleged that the non-petitioner No. 1 in collusion With his sons non-petitioners Nos. 2 and 3, had stolen vouchers file from 1st July, 1977 to 30th October, 1977 confirmation file regarding transactions with dealers and cheque-book containing cheques Nos. 255165 to 255175 which were signed, from the petitioner's factory and also did not return the amount of Rs. . 13,000/- which was cash in* hand with him on November 22, 1977 when he was removed from the post of temporary Manager by the petitioner. Thus it was alleged that non-petitioner committed offences under Sections 381, 409 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code. The Judicial Magistrate Nawa ordered on February 27, 1978 for investigating of this complaint also by the police under section 156 (3) Cr. P. C. The Officer-in-charge, Police Station Nawa, after investigation, submitted Final Report No. 14 dated July 31, 1978 on this complaint. On August 9, 1978, the petitioner filed a protest petition against the final report submitted by the police. The Judicial Magistrate Nawa by his order dated January 29, 1979 rejected the protest petition and refused to take cognizance for offences alleged to have been committed by the non-petitioners. It is against this order that the petitioner has filed Criminal Revision No. 107 of 1979 in this Court. The reasons given by the officer-in-charge of the Police Station, Nawa submitting final report No. 15 dated July 31, 1978 may be mentioned. It was mentioned that the witnesses of the informant were residents of Orissa and Chandanlal did not produce them despite being directed to do so. The receipts of advance amounts produced by him did not contain the name and style of petitioner's factory. The envelops in which letters were received from the customers of Orissa ware not produced. No document was produced by the petitioner which could go to show that Nand Kishore Mor was appointed by the petitioner as temporary manager in his factory. Version of Nand Kishore Mor was that he was never a temporary Manager in the factory. On the other hand, his son Natwar Lal was partner in M/s Rajasthan Gum and Plastic factory. According to Nand Kishore More, he had advanced a total amount of Rs. 60,440/- as loan to the factory and its confirmation was made by petitioner Chandan Lal himself. The petitioner refused to re-pay this loan as well as the share of profit from the factory. The petitioner was asked to repay the amount of loan and also to render account of the profit and on his refusal to do so, Nand Kishore Mor has fifed a suit for the recovery of Rs. 90,000/- on December 12, 1977 in the Court of District Judge, Merta. Chandan Lal gave threat to Nand Kishore Mor that the latter should withdraw the civil suit otherwise he would entangle Nand Kishore Mor in false case. Due to this reason, Chandan Lal filed false criminal complaint against Nand Kishore. According to the police report, the complaint was filed after Nand Kishore Mor had instituted civil suit against Chandan Lal in the Court of the District Judge. There was also delay in filing the criminal complaint. Criminal cases in relation to the same matter were pending in Orissa State Courts at the instance of the alleged customers. Nand Kishore Mor was not proved to be temporary manager in the factory. It was also reported that Nand Lal Mor was quite a rich man of Nawa from commercial point of view and was hard to believe that he would have employed himself in petitioner's factory at temporary manager on a meagre salary of Rs. 500/- per month. The dispute between them was of a civil nature and no offence as alleged by the petitioner was made out. In Final Report No. 14 dated July 31, 1978 given in another criminal. complaint also, the officer - in-charge of Police Station, Nawa did not find the version of Chandan Lal as correct that Nand Lal Mor was acting manager of the factory. It was stated that Chandan Lal had falsely debited two amounts of Rs. 5000/- with respcet to salary paid on October 29, 1977 and October 30, 1977 after dispute had arisen between the parties. It was also stated that in the notice sent by Chandan Lal to Nandkishore on 3. 11. 77, he made no mention about the misappropriation of the amount of Rs. 13,000/- by Nand Lal Mor and about his taking away the voucher files or cheques from the factory. Rest of the contents of this Final Report were more or less the same as in Final Report No. 15 dated July 31, 1978. As laid down by their Lordships of the Supreme Court in H. S. Bains Vs. State (Union Territory of Chandigarh) (l) a Magistrate, who on receipt of a complaint, orders an investigation under Section 156 (3) and receives a police report under Section 173 (1), thereafter do one of the three things : (1) he may decide that there is no sufficient ground for proceeding further and drop action; (2) he may take cognizance of the offence under Section 190 (l) (b) on the basis of the police report and issue process; this he may do without being bound in any manner by the conclusion arrived at by the police in their report; (3) he may take cognizance of the offence under Sec. 190 (1) (a) on the basis of the original complaint and proceed to examine upon oath the complaint and his witnesses under Section 200. If he adopts the third alternative, he may hold or direct an enquiry under Section 202 if he thinks fit. Thereafter he may dismiss the complaint or issue process, as the case may be. In the instance case, he has decided that there was no sufficient ground for proceeding further and dropped action in both the matters. He has thus adopted the first of the three alternative mentioned above. It cannot be urged that the Magistrate having come to a conclusion that there was no sufficient ground for proceeding further was not competent to drop the action without examining the complaint upon oath and the witness, if any. Under Section 202 (1) of the Code, the Magistrate was competent either to enquire into the case himself or direct an investigation to be made by a police officer. The Judicial Magistrate, Nawa adopted the latter course and got investigated both the cases through S. H. O. , Police Station, Nawa. On receiving the police reports, he was of the opinion that there was no sufficient ground for proceeding, dismissed the complaint. Thus the Judicial Magistrate was competent to do under the first of the alternatives laid down in H. S. Bains case (supra ).
(3.) I have also gone through both the final reports of the police and the statements of witnesses recorded under Section 161 Cr. P. C. by the police during the course of investigation and copies of documents produced from both the sides and I am also of the view that there were not sufficient grounds for the Judicial Magistrate, Nawa for proceeding under section 204 Cr. P. C. and he rightly dropped the proceedings. There was no evidence worth believable that Nand Lal Mor had been employed by the petitioner as temporary manager on a monthly salary of Rs. 400/- as stated by Chandan Lal in his statement. The lump sum debiting of two amounts of Rs. 5000/- each on October 29, 1977 and October 30, 1977 as salary of Nand Lal Mor by the petitioner in the rokar, after dissensions had arisen between him and Nand Lal Mor, itself throws a grave and serious default in the truthfulness of the version of the petitioner. It was also prima facie borne out that Nand Lal Mor held a sound financial status and had his own salt business. It is hard to believe that such a person would become an employee of Chandan Lal petitioner on a meagre salary of Rs. 400/- per month. There is evidence that Nand Lal Mor had advanced loans of various amounts on various dates to the petitioner's factory as appears from confirmations of loan account signed by the petitioner and Nand Lal Mor. In that relationship he and his sons used to look after the petition's factory as Chandan Lal was mostly in Orissa in connection of his some other business there. Nand Lal Mor has even filed a suit for the recovery of one lac rupees against the petitioner in the Court of District Judge, Merta on December 14, 1977. The copies of the alleged receipts of advance money produced by Chandan Lal before the police were not on the letter pads of the petitioner's factory as had been alleged by the petitioner in his complaint. Looking to all these factors, there did not exist sufficient grounds before the Magistrate to proceed further in both the cases and he rightly dropped the proceeding in both the cases on receiving Final Reports No. 14 and 15 from the S. H. O. Police Station, Nawa. Both Criminal Revisions Nos. 106 and 107 of 1979 have no force in them and they are hereby dismissed. .;