REPORTABLE

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

CRIMINAL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION

TRANSFER PETITION (CRIMINAL) NO.377 OF 2006

Shree Baidyanath Ayurved Bhawan Pvt. Ltd. … Petitioner

Versus

State of Punjab & Ors. … Respondents

J U D G M E N T

S.B. Sinha, J.

1.The present petition is filed under Section 406 of the Code of

Criminal Procedure, 1973 for transfer of multiple cases by way of

complaints/FIRs for and against the Petitioner Shree Baidyanath Ayurved

Bhawan Ltd. to the Delhi High Court or any other High Court or courts

subordinate to such High Court from the Punjab & Haryana High Court

and/or Courts subordinate thereto.

2.Shree Baidyanath Ayurved Bhawan Pvt. Ltd. (hereinafter referred to

as ‘the company’ for the sake of brevity) is a company registered and

incorporated under the Indian Companies Act, 1956. It manufactures

Ayurvedic medicines. For the purpose of distribution of its products, it

engages Carrying and Forwarding Agents to receive goods from it, store and

sell them to the stockists.

3.The company appointed M/s. S. Bhatia Enterprises, Ludhiana

(Respondent No.5 herein) (for short, ‘the firm’) of which Praveen Bhatia,

Ramkishan Bhatia, Ashwani Bhatia and Promila Bhatia are partners.

The agreement between the parties incorporating the terms and

conditions of Carrying and Forwarding Agency contained an arbitration

clause.

4.Between 2000 and 2001, Respondent No.5 allegedly made fraudulent

credits amounting to Rs.4,00,000/- in the account of M/s. Dhanwantri

Ayurvedic Store, Hambram, said to be a bogus firm. However, subsequent

audit reports of the company allegedly continued to show fraudulent credit

entries which were said to be detected by Company’s Account Manager. The

respondents were warned in respect thereof.

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5.On or about 18.10.2001, allegedly, one of the respondents, namely,

the Respondent No.5, along with some other persons assaulted Company’s

Account Manager, namely, T.S. Thakur and made a threat on his life, and

also snatched audit reports and other documents from him. The matter was

reported to the Police Station, Kailash Chowk, Ludhiana vide FIR No.29

under Sections 406, 420, 467, 468, 471, 504, 506, 382, 323 and 120B of the

Indian Penal Code. The police filed a closure report on the premise that the

accused no longer has any interest in M/s. S. Bhatia Enterprises. However,

at the instance of the petitioner, a competent court directed the police to

make investigation. No charge-sheet in the said case is said to have been

filed as yet.

6.A report of the company dated 2.11.2001 allegedly revealed that the

respondent had embezzled the goods and sale proceeds amounting to

Rs.2.36 crores. On 13.11.2001, an FIR being No.303 came to be registered

at Jhansi against the respondents. However, the said FIR was transferred

from Jhansi to Ludhiana by an order dated 29.5.2002 of the High Court of

Punjab and Haryana.

7.Soon thereafter, an FIR being No.276 was filed against the petitioners

under Sections 452, 383, 384, 323 and 342 of the Indian Penal Code in

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Ludhiana on a complaint being made by the respondents alleging forcible

trespass into their godown.

8.Subsequently, the respondents filed four different petitions [CMM

No.18962 of 2003, 18958 of 2003, 14773 of 2003 and 39666 of 2003]

seeking quashing of FIR No.303. Respondents also filed CMM No.19961of

2003 seeking the stay of arrest in any future case filed against them by the

petitioners.

9.On or about 15.5.2003, Respondents again filed CM No.21830M of

2003 asking for registration of FIR against the petitioners herein for having

secretly removed the stocks from the firm’s godown.

10.Petitioners thereafter filed CM No.23513 of 2003 under Section 482

of the Code of Criminal Procedure praying to direct the State to have the

investigation of all the cases pending between the parties to be conducted by

an independent agency outside the State of Punjab.

11.Indisputably, the parties have filed a large number of criminal cases

against each other. The company filed as many as nine criminal cases which

are pending in different courts of Punjab and Haryana. The firm also filed

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six criminal cases against the company and/or its officers which are pending

in the courts of CJM, Chandigarh and several courts at Ludhiana.

12.It is submitted by the petitioner that the present cases arise out of or in

relation to a single transaction. It is further submitted that at present there are

sixteen criminal cases filed by the Respondent against the petitioner in

various courts in the State of Punjab. In addition, the petitioner has also filed

four criminal cases against Respondents. There are ten FIRs pending against

the parties and investigation in six of the cases has resulted in charge sheet

being filed against the parties.

13.The petitioner also prayed for transfer of all criminal cases pending in

various courts of Punjab including the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at

Chandigarh between the parties, which may not be in the knowledge of the

petitioner and hence also may not be mentioned in this transfer petition.

14.Mr. Sunil Gupta, learned senior counsel appearing on behalf of the

appellant, would contend that as all the cases arise out of the same

transaction, the interest of justice would be subserved if all the matters are

clubbed together in order to avoid multiplicity of proceedings. The

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proceedings in various courts would show that the company and its officers

have unfairly been treated.

15.Mr. Bhatt, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the respondents, on

the other hand, would urge that for transfer of a criminal case, there must be

a reasonable apprehension on the part of a party to a case that justice would

not be done which the petitioners have failed to do.

16.Some of the cases, namely, cases arising out of FIR Nos.29, 276 and

303 having been transferred from Ludhiana and Jhansi to the Court of

Chandigarh, it would, in our opinion, be inappropriate to transfer all criminal

cases to Jhansi.

Indisputably, at the time of filing of the transfer application, in some

of the matters investigations were pending. Some of the criminal cases have

been filed in the Ludhiana Courts by the company itself. Indisputably, it has

an office at Ludhiana.

17.Although Section 406 of the Code of Criminal Procedure empowers

this Court to transfer a criminal case from one Court situated in one State to

another situated in another State but indisputably the convenience of the

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parties including the witnesses to be produced at the trial is a relevant

consideration therefor.

In Abdul Nazar Madani v. State of Tamil Nadu & Anr. [(2000) 6

SCC 204], this Court has categorically held that before an order of transfer is

effected, the convenience not only of the petitioner but also prosecution,

other accused and witnesses including the larger interest of the society

should also be taken into consideration.

18.It is true that some apprehensions have been expressed that justice

may not be done to the company but keeping in view the facts and

circumstances of this case, we are of the opinion that its apprehension does

not appear to be a reasonable one. We have no doubt in our mind that all the

Courts concerned would act impartially and the Company and its Directors

and Officers who are facing trial before the courts concerned would be dealt

with very fairly.

19.We would, however, request the District Judges of Chandigarh and

Ludhiana to consider the desirability of transferring all the criminal matters

(as far as practicable and legally permissible) to one court so as to enable

them to be disposed of one after the other. We are, furthermore, of the

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opinion that if and when applications for dispensation of personal

appearance are filed by the accused, the same shall be considered by the

courts concerned on their own merits.

20The transfer petition, therefore, is dismissed with the aforementioned

directions/observations.

..…………………………..…J.

[S.B. Sinha]

..…………………………..…J.

[Cyriac Joseph]

New Delhi;

August 4, 2009

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