IN THE HIGH COURT OF KARNATAKA AT BENGALURU DATED THIS THE 15th DAY OF MARCH, 2019 BEFORE THE HON’BLE MR.JUSTICE ARAVIND KUMAR CRIMINAL PETITION NO.156/2019 BETWEEN:
SRI. SATHISH S S/O SAVAPLARA NAGARAJAPPA AGED ABOUT 35 YEARS PROP. MARULASIDDESHWARA AGRO FERTILIZERS, JAGALUR ROAD YALEBESHURU VILLAGE DAVANAGERE TALUK AND DISTRICT. ... PETITIONER (BY SRI. VISHWAJITH SHETTY S, ADVOCATE) AND:
SRI. KUBERAPPA K S/O K. VEERAPPA AGED ABOUT 39 YEARS PRO. SRI. BASAVESHWARA AGRO AGENCIES, HOLESIRIGELE VILLAGE HARIHARA TALUK-577002.
... RESPONDENT (BY SRI. R. SATHISH CHANDRA, ADVOCATE) THIS CRIMINAL PETITION IS FILED UNDER SECTION 482 CR,P.C. PRAYING TO QUASH THE ORDER DATED 17.10.2018 MADE IN C.C.NO.1066/2012 BY THE COURT OF II ADDITIONAL CIVIL JUDGE AND JMFC, HARIHARA.
THIS CRIMINAL PETITION COMING ON FOR ADMISSION THIS DAY, THE COURT MADE THE FOLLOWING:
O R D E R Heard Smt. Aneema, learned Advocate appearing on behalf of Sri. Vishwajith Shetty for petitioner and Sri. R. Sathish Chandra, learned Advocate appearing for respondent. Perused the records.
2. Respondent herein has filed a complaint under Section 200 Cr.P.C. alleging that petitioner has committed an offence punishable under Section 138 of Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881. During the course of trial an application came to be filed under Section 45 of Evidence Act, 1872, by petitioner- accused with a prayer to send Exs.P.1 and P.2 and other four sale bills dated 16.03.2011 and 23.03.2011 produced by him to Handwriting Expert/ Forensic Lab for comparing the signatures found on Exs.P.1 and P.2 and four bills- Exs.D.1 to D.4.
3. This Court in Crl.P.No.10097/2017 had allowed the said application, which had been rejected by trial Court and thereafter memo of instructions came to be filed. Petitioner has sought for said documents to be sent to “Clue4Evidence” who were said to be Forensic Expert for undertaking said exercise. However, respondent has sought for documents in question being sent to “Truth Labs”, a Forensic Lab. Thus, learned trial Judge has referred the said documents to Truth Labs/Forensic Lab as sought for by the respondent. Hence, petitioner is before this Court.
4. Having heard the learned Advocates appearing for parties and on perusal of records, this Court is of the considered view that bone of contention is referring the documents in question to neutral lab and it is apt and appropriate to refer the said documents to Forensic Laboratory, Madiwala, Bengaluru.
With this observation, I proceed to pass the following;
ORDER (i) Criminal petition stands disposed of.
(ii) Learned trial Judge shall take steps to refer the documents in question to Forensic Laboratory, Madiwala, Bengaluru, along with related documents with request to forward a report expeditiously, at any rate, within an outer limit of two (2) months from the date of receipt of copy of the communication from trial Court.
(iii) On receipt of said report, trial Court shall conclude the proceedings within one month thereafter.
SD/-
JUDGE RU