M.B. Shah JUDGMENT
K.T. Thomas, J.
1. Leave granted.
2. Chairman of the appellant company filed a complaint before the Judicial Magistrate of First Class, Gandhidham (Gujarat) alleging certain offences including the offence of cheating against another company located at Indore (Madhya pradesh) and its Directors. The Magistrate forwarded the complaint to the appellant for investigation as per his order passed under Section 156(3) of the CrPC (for short "the Code"). The accused Directors thereupon moved the High Court of Gujarat under Section 482 of the Code for quashing the complaint. A single Judge of the High Court quashed the complaint as also the order passed by the Magistrate thereon. Complainant has, therefore, filed this appeal.
3. The gist of the complaint is this : In the month of October 1996 the accused Directors approached him and offered to supply 5450 metric tones of "Toasted Soyabean Extractions" for a price of nearly four and a half crores of rupees. The rate quoted by the accused was higher than the market price. Appellant had to pay the price in advance as demanded by the accused. So the same was paid through cheques. But the accused sent the commodity which was of the most inferior and sub-standard quality. Complainant produced Xerox copies of the reports obtained from the laboratory to which samples of the commodities were sent for testing purposes. The said laboratory has remarked that the commodity was of "the most inferior and sub-standard quality." The complainant suffered a loss of 17 lakhs of rupees by the aforesaid consignment alone. According to the appellant he was induced to pay the price on the representation that the best quality commodity would be supplied and the price was paid on such representation. But by supplying the most inferior quality the accused deceived the complainant and thereby the offence was committed. The above are the salient features of the allegations in the complaint.
4. We have noted from the judgment of the learned single judge of the High Court that appellant's counsel in the High Court did not turn up to argue the matter. Evidently learned judge was deprived of the advantage of getting appellant's version projected. The deficiency is seen reflected in the impugned judgment also.
5. Respondent's counsel in the High Court put forward mainly two contentions. First was that the dispute is purely of a civil nature and hence no prosecution should have been permitted, and the second was that the Judicial Magistrate of First Class, Gandhidham has no jurisdiction to entertain the complaint. Learned Single Judge has approved both the contentions and quashed the complaint and the order passed by the Magistrate thereon.
6. On the first count learned single judge pointed out that there was a specific clause in the Memorandum of Understanding arrived between ........