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Petition for Special Leave to Appeal No. 268 of 1967, decided on 13th October 1967.
(On appeal from the judgment and order of the High Court of West Pakistan, Lahore, dated the 1st September 1967, in Criminal Revision No. 2.10 of 1966).
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---‑Proceedings in complaint lodged by Registrar of High Court under Ss. 182 & 193, P. P. C., for laying false information with Chief Justice of High Court in respect of a Civil Judge‑High Court declining to quash proceedings‑Leave to appeal sought on ground that Registrar was not competent to prosecute petitioner as false information was laid before Chief Justice who alone could lodge such complaint ‑ Established practice‑Complaint lodged by High Court is signed and presented by Registrar on its behalf‑"Complaint in writing" held, in circumstances of case, made by High Court and not by Registrar which satisfied requirements of S. 195(1)(a), Criminal Procedure Code (V of 1898)‑Petition dismissed‑Constitution of Pakistan (1962), Art. 58(3).
Mian Bashir Ahmad, Advocate Supreme Court instructed by Muhammad Mehdi Anwar, Attorney for Petitioner.
Nemo for the State.
Date of hearing: 13th October 1967.
‑This petition calls in question the order of the High Court declining to quash the proceedings in a complaint lodged by the Registrar of that Court against the petitioner under sections 182 and 193, P. P. C., for laying false information with the Chief Justice in respect of a Civil Judge and for filing a false affidavit in support of the information.
It was contended that the Registrar was not competent to prosecute the petitioner as the alleged false information was laid with the Chief Justice and under section 195 (1)(a) of the Criminal Procedure Code he alone could lodge the complaint against him. Section 195(1)(a) on which reliance was placed in the High Court provides as follows:‑
"195(1) No Court shall take cognizance‑‑
(a) of any offence punishable under sections 172 to 188 of the , Pakistan Penal Code, except on the complaint in writing of the public servant concerned, or of some other public servant to whom he is subordinate."
The complaint against the Civil Judge to the effect that he had made interpolations in the proceedings of a civil suit in which. the petitioner was a defendant and fabricated a compromise was made by the petitioner to the Chief Justice. An inquiry was thereupon held by Mr. Justice Ortcheson, the Judge incharge of administration in the course of which the petitioner filed an affidavit to support the accusation made in the complaint. The allegations were found to be untrue and in consequence thereof directions were given by the learned Judge to the Registrar to file a complaint against the petitioner under sections 182 to 193, P. P. C.
The legal position which thus emerges out is that the petitioner had laid the false information with the Chief Justice of the High Court against a Civil Judge and supported it by an affidavit. The Civil Judge being a public servant subordinate to the High Court, Mr. Justice Ortcheson, acting on behalf of that Court, could order prosecution of the petitioner. By an established practice any complaint lodged by the High Court is signed and presented by the Registrar on its behalf. The "complaint in writing" against the petitioner was, therefore, made by the High Court and not by the Registrar which satisfied the requirements of section 195(1)(a). The revision petition for quashment of the complaint was in the circumstances rightly rejected by the High Court.
The petition is dismissed.
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