Delhi High Court: The Bench of Mukta Gupta, J. dismissed a petition filed against the judgment of Metropolitan Magistrate acquitting the respondent for the offence punishable under Sections 468 and 471 IPC.
Petitioner and respondent were real brothers involved in a dispute over the subject property. Respondent had filed a suit for permanent injunction in capacity of his mother’s attorney. He filed a copy of Power of Attorney purportedly executed by his mother by which he was authorised to file the suit and also a Sale Agreement to show ownership of his mother. However, this suit was dismissed. Subsequently, respondent filed another suit, this time claiming the subject property was owned by his father.
The petitioner submitted that by taking contradictory stands in two suits, respondent demonstrated that he filed forged and fabricated documents before the Court. Per Contra, respondent contended that there was nothing on record to show that the documents were forged.
The High Court held that the trial court was right in acquitting respondent of the charges of forgery for purpose of cheating. It was stated, “taking two contradictory stands in two separate suits regarding ownership of the same property does raise a presumption that the averments in one of the suits are false but, mere presumption is not sufficient for convicting the respondent for an offence of forgery.” It was observed that mere non-production of original documents or not producing the mother in Court would not lead to proof beyond reasonable doubt of the alleged forgery. In such view of the matter, the petition was dismissed. [Harish Chander Verma v. Mohinder Kumar Verma, 2019 SCC OnLine Del 6752, decided on 09-01-2019]
