Full Judgment Text
REPORTABLE
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION
CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 833 OF 2014
ARISING OUT OF
SPECIAL LEAVE PETITION (CRIMINAL) NO. 7700 OF 2007
M/S. HARYANA STATE COOP. SUPPLY
AND MARKETING FEDERATION LTD. ... APPELLANT
VERSUS
M/S. JAYAM TEXTILES & ANR. ... RESPONDENTS
WITH
JUDGMENT
CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 834 OF 2014
ARISING OUT OF
SPECIAL LEAVE PETITION (CRIMINAL) NO. 20 OF 2008
M/S. HARYANA STATE COOP. SUPPLY
AND MARKETING FEDERATION LTD. ... APPELLANT
VERSUS
M/S. JAYAM TEXTILES & ANR. ... RESPONDENTS
Crl.A. @ SLP(Crl) No. 7700 of 2007 Page 1 of 10
Page 1
-
J U D G M E N T
N.V. RAMANA, J.
1. Leave granted.
2. The present appeals have been filed against the
judgment dated 18.06.2007 passed by the High
Court of Judicature at Madras in Crl. A. Nos.
348 and 410 of 2001 thereby dismissing the said
appeals on the ground that Mr. Davinder Kumar
Lal, claiming to be the power of attorney
holder of the appellant-Federation, has no
locus standi to file the complaints/appeals as
he has failed to prove that the Appellant-
Federation had authorised him to file the same.
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3. The facts of the two appeals are – the
appellant-Federation supplied cotton bales to
the respondents of the value of Rs.30,45,602/-
vide three invoices dated 19.12.1994,
21.12.1994 and 20.01.1995. The respondents, to
discharge their liability, issued in total four
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cheques – two cheques for Rs.5 lakhs each dated
16.01.1995 and 20.01.1995 respectively and two
-
4. cheques for Rs. 11 lakhs each dated 20.01.1995
and 25.01.1995 respectively. However, on
presentation, all the said four cheques were
returned unpaid by the bank with an endorsement
‘ for want of sufficient funds ’. The appellant-
Federation sent legal notice(s) dated
19.04.1995 and 27.04.1995 under Section 138 of
the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 (for
short, ‘the N.I. Act’), which were duly
received by the respondents. On failure of the
respondents to pay the amount within the
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stipulated time of 15 days from the date of
receipt of the notice, the appellant-Federation
filed complaints under Section 138 and 140 of
the N.I. Act read with Section 420 of the
Indian Penal Code, 1860 (for short, ‘the
I.P.C.’) against the respondents. The said
complaints were dismissed by the Judicial
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Magistrate vide order dated 07.02.2001 and the
appeals filed against the said order were
dismissed vide impugned judgment dated
18.06.2007, solely on the ground that the
‘authorisation’ was not produced by the
complainant-appellant.
5. -
6. It is submitted by the counsel for the
appellant-Federation that in fact there was an
authorisation from the Board of Directors of
the Federation, but unfortunately, the same was
not filed along with the complaint and on
account of this reason only, the complaint was
dismissed, and as a matter of record, the said
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authorisation delegating powers was passed in
th
the meeting of the Federation on 15 April,
1976 and an opportunity to the appellant-
Federation could have been afforded by the
Courts below to furnish the authorisation,
particularly when the appellant-Federation is a
Public Sector Undertaking and money which has
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to be paid by the respondents is public money.
In support of his submission, learned counsel
has drawn our attention to Annexure–P/7 , the
extracts of the meeting of the Board of
Directors of the Federation held on 15.04.1976,
which are in the following terms:
“ 14 DELEGATION OF POWERS
The Board of Directors of the Haryana
State Co-operative Supply and Marketing -
Federation in their meeting held on 15.4.1976
resolved to delegate the following powers to
the authorities mentioned against each and to
the extent indicated as under.
Delegation of Powers to various officers of the Federation.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Sr. Nature of Powers Authority to whom Extent of powers
No. delegated
1 2 3 4
--------------------------------------------------------------
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(A) Administration
1 to 23 xx xx xx
24. Institution and defence
of legal proceeding etc.
i) To institute, conduct, M.D. Full Power
defend, compromise,
refer to arbitration and abandon
legal or other proceedings
and claims and also to file
appeals, revisions, review
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petitions and executing by
and against the Federation
and also to engage lawyers
for that purpose from time
to time.
ii) To give general power of M.D. Full Power
attorney to any person /
officer for conducting the
cases in Courts etc.
(B) Financial Administration
25 o Category B xx xx xx”
7. Learned counsel for the appellant-Federation
further submitted that it is in pursuance of
the above-said delegation of powers to the
Managing -
8. Director, the general power of attorney in
question was executed by him authorising Mr.
Davinder Kumar Lal to take civil and criminal
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action against the defaulters including the
respondents herein. He, therefore, prayed to
remit back the matter to the Trial Court with a
direction to consider the whole issue taking
into consideration the authorisation delegating
powers to the Managing Director as passed by
Crl.A. @ SLP(Crl) No. 7700 of 2007 Page 6 of 10
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the appellant-Federation in its meeting held on
th
15 April, 1976.
9. Learned senior counsel for the respondents, on
the other hand, contended that several years
have already been passed in the litigation and
despite sufficient opportunity has been granted
by the Courts below, the appellant-Federation
has failed to produce authorisation and hence
there is no reason for this Court to interfere
at this stage. When the matter was listed
before us on 11.03.2014, a specific query was,
however, put to the learned senior counsel
appearing for the respondents as to whether the
respondents have paid the amounts which are due
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and payable to -
10. the appellant-Federation. It was submitted, on
instructions, that, in fact, arbitration had
taken place and even the award had been passed
against the respondents, but the respondents
have not complied with the terms of the award
so far.
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11. Having heard learned counsel for the parties
and after perusing the material on record, we
find that admittedly authorisation by the Board
of Directors of the appellant-Federation was
not placed before the Courts below. But, we may
notice that a specific averment was made by the
appellant-Federation before the learned
Judicial Magistrate that the said General Power
of Attorney has been filed in connected case
being CC No. 1409/1995, which has neither been
denied nor disputed by the respondents. In any
case, in our opinion, if the Courts below were
not satisfied, an opportunity ought to have
been granted to the appellant-Federation to
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place the document containing authorisation on
record and prove the same in accordance with
law. This is so because procedural defects and
irregularities, which are curable, should -
12. not be allowed to defeat substantive rights or
to cause injustice. Procedure, a hand-maiden
to justice, should never be made a tool to deny
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justice or perpetuate injustice, by any
oppressive or punitive use. {See Uday Shankar
Triyar Vs. Ram Kalewar Prasad Singh , (2006) 1
SCC 75 }.
13. In view of the fact that in spite of
arbitration award against the respondents,
there was non-payment of amount by the
respondents to the appellant-Federation, and
also in the light of authorisation contained in
Annexure–P/7 , we are of the opinion that, in
the facts and circumstances of the case, an
opportunity should be given to the appellant-
Federation to produce and prove the
authorisation before the Trial Court, more so,
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when money involved is public money. We,
therefore, set aside the judgments of the
Courts below and remit the matters back to the
Trial Court with a direction to conduct trial
afresh taking into consideration the
authorisation placed before us and dispose of
the -
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14. matter as expeditiously as possible in
accordance with law.
15. The appeals and the interlocutory applications
stand disposed of accordingly.
.............C.J.I.
(P. Sathasivam)
.................J.
(Ranjan Gogoi)
.................J.
(N.V. Ramana)
New Delhi;
April 07, 2014.
JUDGMENT
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