A magistrate has drawn flak from a city court for summoning the chiefs of Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Army as a defense witness in a private cheque bounce case, saying it was done 'mechanically' and 'without applying mind'.
District and Sessions Judge RK Gauba questioned the summoning of the chiefs of two services in the case of an ex-IAF official, when the witness to be called as defense evidence was an official or clerk.
"Even though in the corresponding proceedings, the witness whose presence was sought to be secured for defense evidence was described as an official from Army Headquarters, the summon was issued for Chief of the Air staff. There has apparently been no approval taken from the trial magistrate for the Chief of Air staff to be summoned, nor was it indicated as to what was the purpose of the said functionary to be called as a defense witness," he said.
"It is not explained as to why summons were issued in the name of Chief of Army staff (and this was repeated several times), even though Army Headquarters did not have the remotest connection either with the matter at hand or even with Dilawar Singh, who had been an employee of Air Force," it said. The court was deciding a revision petition against the magistrate's order in cheque bounce case initiated by Dilawar in 2003 against one Virpal Singh. Dilawar had alleged a cheque of Rs 15.05 lakh issued to him by Virpal was dishonoured due to insufficient funds in his account.
During trial, Virpal denied having issued any cheque. In May 2008, Virpal had sought to lead evidence in his defense and summons were issued in the name of "Officials/ Clerk, Chief of Army Staff, Army Headquarters, Sena Bhawan."
No witness, however, appeared pursuant to the summons. During the hearing on revision petition, Virpal said the record clerk, Chief of the Air staff, Air Headquarters was expected to produce certain records regarding Dilawar's dismissal from service in IAF.
The judge, however, was not convinced with his contention and said the magistrate had not applied mind to the question of relevancy and that in a case of this nature, the question of reasons why Dilawar Singh left the services of Air Force is completely irrelevant.