The Punjab and Haryana High Court dismissed demand for certified copies of document in the case of charge of contraventions committed by the accused in relation to the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), 1999.
The petitioner in the present matter is Manpreet Singh @ Manni Gill. The prayer in the present petition filed under Section 482 Cr.P.C. is for directing the Registrar Judicial of the Court to transfer the file pertaining to the Trial Court Casearising out of FIR No.69 under Sections 21, 22, 61, 85 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (NDPS) and Section 13 of F.E.M Act.
In sum and substance, the case of the petitioner is that while he was convicted in the abovesaid FIR and the offshoot proceedings pending in the Trial Court under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002. He had called for the record, so that the documents exhibited in the FIR case were also exhibited and proved in the complaint case.
However, the officials who had got the record had expressed their inability that they could not compare the photocopy shown by the Advocate with the documents on the file nor they could prove the same as the documents have not been executed in their presence. They could not supply copies of the documents from the record as there was no such direction by this Court and they had only been deputed to produce the record.
Accordingly, the case of the petitioner is that he had applied for the certified copies, but was not supplied the same and has supplied uncertified copies of the same by the copying agency of this Court. Reliance has been placed upon the uncertified copies given by the office.
A Division Bench comprising Justices GS Sandhawalia and Harpreet Kaur Jeewan comprising observed that “The Special Judge was asked that if there was still any requirement of appearance of the concerned official, the information be given accordingly to the concerned Court. Thus, it is apparent that due to subsequent events, original record has already gone back to the District and Sessions Judge, SAS Nagar (Mohali) and, therefore, the request, which is now being made has become infructuous.”
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