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TMI Blog1984 (12) TMI 332X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Procedure Code, 1973 it is permissible for the Court to club and consolidate the case on a police challan and the case on a complaint where the prosecution versions in the police challan case and the complaint case are materially different, contradictory and mutually exclusive. The question is whether the Court should in the facts and circumstances of the case direct that the two cases should be tried together but not consolidated i.e. the evidence be recorded separately in both cases and they may be disposed of simultaneously except to the extent that the witnesses for the prosecution which are common to both may be examined m one case and their evidence be read as evidence in the other. 3. Shortly stated, the facts are these. On the n ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t's side. On the basis of the challan they have also been committed to stand their trial before the Court of Sessions, but we are not concerned with that trial in this appeal. 5. Upon being released by the police and after collecting the relevant material, a complaint was lodged by the appellant in the Court of the Sub-Divisional Magistrate against the nine respondents before us i.e. respondents Nos. 2 to 10. In the meantime, the learned Additional Sessions Judge had fixed the case put up by the prosecution The State M Karnail Singh for recording of evidence. Apprehending that the complaint case filed by the appellant would not be committed until the trial before the learned Additional Sessions Judge concluded, the appellant moved th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e learned Additional Sessions Judge with certain directions. In adopting that course he referred to an earlier decision of a Division Bench of the High Court, of which he was a member, in the State of Punjab v. Wassan Singh and Ors. Criminal Revision No. 3-R of 1982 decided on February 10, 1984. The learned Single Judge observed : One is to be alive to the provisions of Article 20(2) of the Constitution of India providing that no person shall be prosecuted and punished for the same offence more than once. On the same principles, the provisions of Section 300, Criminal Procedure Code, are equally pertinent. It provides that when a person who has once been tried by a Court of competent jurisdiction for an offence and convicted or acquitted ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... atter of leading evidence in the complaint case. As regard the apprehension of the complainant that the evidence meant to be led in the police challan case and that meant to be led in the complaint case would be mutually exclusive and would necessarily lead to an acquittal of the accused on account of conflicting versions, the learned Single Judge observed that it need not be so as the Court would have to sift the grain from the chaff, that being its bounden duty. 7. It is contended by learned Counsel for the appellant that the High Court was wrong in upholding the order of the learned Additional Sessions Judge that the cases be clubbed and consolidated particularly when the prosecution versions in the police challan case and the complai ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... th a situation as the present, where two cases exclusively triable by the Court of Sessions, one instituted on a police report under Section 173 of the Code and the other initiated on a criminal complaint, arose out of the same transaction. The Court observed that to obviate the risk of two courts coming to conflicting findings, it was desirable that the two cases should be tried separately but by the same court. The High Court was largely influenced in upholding the order of the Additional Sessions Judge by the fundamental right of the accused guaranteed by Article 20(2) of the Constitution and Section 300 of the Code which provides that no person shall be prosecuted and punished for the same offence more than once. If there is no punishme ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... post-mortem examinations. We have set out these allegations only for the purpose of showing the nature of the case against the accused in the police challan case. The complaint presents a different picture altogether. The prosecution case as set out in the complaint is at complete variance with that in the police challan. In our judgment, it is not permissible for the Court under Section 223 of the Code to club and consolidate the case on a police challan and the case on a complaint where the prosecution versions in the police challan case and: the complaint case are materially different, contradictory. and mutually exclusive. 10. For these reasons, the appeal succeeds and is allowed. The order passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, B ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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