HC orders action against rural magistrate

The order came in the wake of a petition filed by one Vallabh Poshia,an NRI from the United States.

According to the details of the case,Poshia had given a power of attorney of his bungalow in Ahmedabad to one Harish Gohil in 2002. Though,in March 2002 Gohil and later Poshia came to know the bungalow has been sold off at a very low price by using forged power of attorney and other documents.

Immediately,Gohil lodged a court complaint against three persons under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code.

Following the complaint,the magistrate passed an ‘ambiguous’ order and asked the concerned police station officers to give their opinion on the complaint and the kind of criminal charges to be levelled against the accused.

Following this order,the complainant filed four applications at different intervals urging the magistrate to pass an order to let the police investigate the matter so that evidence can be collected in the form of various documents to prove the case of forgery.

However,the magistrate kept all the applications pending and suddenly after six months in October 2004 passed an order of initiating criminal process against the accused. On the same day,he also passed an order rejecting all the applications filed by the complainant since the criminal process had started against the accused.

Poshia challenged the magistrate’s order in the HC through his counsel Nitin Amin as initiating criminal process against the accused without having documentary evidence would not have resulted in the conviction of the accused.

Quashing the orders of the magistrate,Justice Shah also ordered police investigation in Poshia’s complaint so that relevant evidence can be recovered to prosecute the accused. The investigation has to be completed in three months.