Punjab-Haryana High Court
Sabdeep Singh vs State Of Punjab on 4 September, 2008
Criminal Misc. No.54530-M of 2007 -1-
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IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA
AT CHANDIGARH
Criminal Misc. No.54530-M of 2007
Date of decision : 4.9.2008
Sabdeep Singh .....Petitioner
Versus
State of Punjab ...Respondent
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CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE S. D. ANAND
Present: Mr. R.K.Dadwal, Advocate for the petitioner.
Ms. Manjari Nehru, Deputy Advocate General, Punjab
S. D. ANAND, J.
The summoning of the petitioner, as an accused, to stand trial in case FIR No. 121 dated 21.6.2002 under Sections 323, 324, 307, 148 & 149 IPC, Police Station, Nawanshahar was ordered by the learned Trial Court on the basis of partly recorded statement of injured PW Jaswinder Singh. A copy of his statement has been placed on record as Annexure P-
6. In the course of his examination-in-chief, all that he stated was that "the persons accompanying me told that accused present in the Court inflicted injury on my person." He was declared hostile by the prosecution and was cross-examined by the Public Prosecutor on behalf of the State. In the course of the cross-examination on behalf of the accused, only two questions had been directed at him when deferment of the statement came about on filing of an application under Section 319 Cr.P.C. Though the right of accused for further cross-examination of that the witness was indicative to have been reserved, the fact remains that the statement under Criminal Misc. No.54530-M of 2007 -2- **** Section 319 Cr.P.C. was not concluded. The plea under Section 319 Cr.P.C. came to be allowed thereafter. It is beyond the pale of controversy that the petitioner had been found innocent by the investigating agency and his name had been indicated in column No. 2 of the report under Section 173 Cr.P.C.
In that view of things and also in view of the fact that his summoning had been ordered on the basis of a partly recorded statement of Jaswinder Singh PW, the impugned order cannot be sustained, particularly when during the course of examination-in-chief of Jaswinder Singh, he did not name the petitioner as the person who injured him.
In the light of the foregoing discussion, the petition shall stand allowed. The impugned order dated 18.10.2005 (Annexure P-4), summoning the petitioner as an accused, shall stand set aside.
September 04, 2008 (S. D. ANAND) Pka JUDGE