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L. N. Mukherjee v. The State Of Madras

L. N. Mukherjee
v.
The State Of Madras

(Supreme Court Of India)

Criminal Appeal No. 119 Of 1960 | 19-04-1961


Raghubar Dayal, J.

1. This appeal, by special leave, is against the order of the Madras High Court dismissing the application for quashing the commitment of the case against the appellant, to the Court of Sessions, for trial of offences of criminal conspiracy the cheat under S. 120-B read with S. 420, I.P.C., and for the offence of forgery committed in pursuance of that conspiracy. The criminal conspiracy is alleged to have been committed at Calcutta. The other offences in pursuance of the conspiracy are alleged to have been committed within the jurisdiction of the Court of Session at Madras the quashing of the commitment was sought on the ground that the Courts at Madras had no jurisdiction to try the offence of conspiracy. The High Court did not accept the contention and dismissed the application.

2. The sole question for consideration in this appeal is whether the offence of conspiracy alleged to have been committed at Calcutta can be tried by the Court of Session at Madras.

3. We have held this day, in Purushottamdas Dalmia v. State of West Bengal, Criminal Appeal No. 51 of 1959: (AIR 1961 SC 1589 [LQ/SC/1961/196] ) that the Court having jurisdiction to try the offence of criminal conspiracy can also try offences committed in pursuance of that conspiracy even if those offences were committed outside the jurisdiction of that Court, as the provisions of S. 239, Cr .P. C. are not controlled by the provisions of S. 177, Cr. P. C., which do not create an absolute prohibition against the trial of offences by a Court other than the one within whose jurisdiction the offence is committed. On a parity of reasoning, the Court having jurisdiction to try the offences committed in pursuance of the conspiracy, can try the offence of conspiracy even it was committed outside its jurisdiction. We therefore hold that the order under appeal is correct and, accordingly, dismiss this appeal.

4. Appeal dismissed.

Advocates List

For the Appearing Parties D.N. Mukherji , M.S.K. Shastri, T.M. Sen, Advocates.

For Petitioner
  • Shekhar Naphade
  • Mahesh Agrawal
  • Tarun Dua
For Respondent
  • S. Vani
  • B. Sunita Rao
  • Sushil Kumar Pathak

Bench List

HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE K. SUBBA RAO

HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RAGHUVAR DAYAL

Eq Citation

1961 31 AWR 556

[1962] 2 SCR 116

1961 CRILJ 736

AIR 1961 SC 1601

1961 (2) AN.W.R. 156

1961 (2) SCJ 600

LQ/SC/1961/193

HeadNote

Criminal Trial — Jurisdiction — Offence of conspiracy — Court having jurisdiction to try offence of criminal conspiracy, held, can also try offences committed in pursuance of that conspiracy even if those offences were committed outside jurisdiction of that Court — Indian Penal Code, 1860 — S. 120-B