Jharkhand High Court: Anubha Rawat Choudhary J., upheld the findings of the impugned judgment and modified the sentence to meet the ends of justice.
The facts of the case are that the complainant was a sole owner of a piece of land acquired by the complainant from its erstwhile owner namely, Sokra Gope by virtue of a registered deed of sale dated 29-03-1972 becoming the absolute owner of the land. It was further alleged that the petitioner started dumping iron ore, boulders, etc. on a portion of the said piece of land and had diminished the value of cultivable land and caused a loss of more than Rs 10,000. It was also alleged that the complainant was deprived from using the agricultural land for cultivation. A complaint under Section 427 and 447 IPC was made and Court of Judicial Magistrate Ist class convicted the petitioner and Sessions Judge affirmed the said judgment dated 18.07.2013. Hence instant revision petition has been filed challenging the judgment dated 18.07.2013.
Counsel for the petitioner, Gouri Debi submitted that the court of the impugned judgment has failed to properly consider the sale-deed. It was further contended that the present case is a civil dispute and not a criminal dispute as it relates to the title of land.
Counsel for the respondents, Ravi Prakash submitted that the learned courts have duly considered both the sale-deeds of the complainant as well as the defense. It was also submitted that there is no scope of re-appreciation of the evidence and hence there is no illegality or perversity in the impugned judgments.
The Court observed
“The act i.e. dumping of iron ore over the complainant’s land certainly intimidate him and would cause annoyance so the basic ingredients of the criminal trespass is present in this facts and circumstances of the case so accused is also liable to be convicted for the offence committed under Section 447 IPC.”
After hearing the arguments and witnesses being cross-examined thoroughly, Court held that both the sale-deeds were in connection with the same property. It was further held that the basic ingredients of Sections 427 and 447 were satisfied and the petitioner’s actions caused wrongful loss to the complainant and the land became infertile and was not useful for cultivation. It was further held that as the basic ingredients of offence were present in the case, hence merely because there is a dispute in connection with land, it will not be a civil dispute.
In view of the above, the petition was disposed off and sentence modified.[Md. Kausar Ali v. State of Jharkhand, 2020 SCC OnLine Jhar 742, decided on 20-08-2020]
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