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11. The scope of the preliminary enquiry envisaged in Section 340(1) of the Code is to ascertain whether any offence affecting administration of justice has been committed in respect of a document produced in Court or given in evidence in a proceeding in that Court. In other words, the offence should have been committed during the time when the document was in Custodia Legis.
12. It would be a strained thinking that any offence involving forgery of a document if committed far outside the precincts of the Court and long before its production in the Court could also be treated as a criterion affecting administration of justice merely because that document later reached the Court records. In the case on hand, since, as I have already pointed out, the offence of forgery of Exs.A2 & A3 was committed outside the Court, even before they were produced before the Court, there can be no impediment for the police to register a case. when it was pointed out by this Court to the learned counsel on either side that this Court has power to issue a direction to the Thasildar, Tambaram to forward a complaint to the police in respect of the above offence of forgery, for registration of a Criminal case, so as to investigate the same thoroughly to find out the real culprits, the learned counsel for the Appellant submitted that such power is not available for this Court in a Civil Proceedings. Of course, it is true that there is no express provision in the Civil Procedure Code specifically empowering a Civil Court to issue a direction either to a party or to a witness to make a complaint to the police. But at the same time, it needs to be noted that there is no prohibition, either express or implied, thereby prohibiting a Civil Court from issuing any direction to a party or a witness to forward a complaint to the police when a serious offence of forgery is alleged.
in the case at hand, the prosecution is on the basis of a private complaint and in the absence of complaint in the civil Court, where the alleged fraudulent produced would not be sustainable and such proposition is no longer less integra. Further another judgment of the Honble Supreme Court reported in 2005 (4) 370 in Iqbal Singh Marwah and another v. Meenakshi Marwanh and another In this connection the 41st report of the Law Commission comes to hold as In view of language used in Section 340 Cr.P.C. the Court is not bound to make a complaint regarding commission of an offence referred to in Section 195(1)(b), as the section is conditioned by the words Court is of opinion that it is expedient in the interests of justice. This shows that such a course will be adopted only if the interest of justice requires and not in every case. before filing of the complaint, the Court may hold a preliminary enquiry and record a finding to the effect that it is expedient in the interest of justice that enquiry should be made into any of the offences referred to in Section 195(1)(b). This expediency will normally be judged by the Court by weighing not the magnitude of injury suffered by the person affected by such forgery or forged document, but having regard to the effect or impact, such commission of offence has upon administration of justice. It is possible that such forged document or forgery may cause a very serious or substantial injury to a person in the sense that it may deprive him of a very valuable property or status or the like, but such document may be just as piece of evidence produced or given in evidence in Court, where voluminous evidence may have been adduced and the effect of such piece of evidence on the broad concept of administration of justice may be minimal. In such circumstances, the Court may not consider it expedient in the interest of justice to make a complaint. The broad view of clause (b) (ii), as canvassed by learned counsel for the appellants, would render the victim of such forgery or forged document remediless. Any interpretation which leads to a situation where a victim of a crime is rendered remediless, has to be discouraged.