Madras High Court has observed that Form 32 is sterling in nature and therefore that can be relied upon by the court at the time of dealing with quash petition.
A bench of Justice Ilanthiraiyan has passed the order in the case titled as Srinivasa Ragavan vs P.Vijayakumar on 20.09.2019.
Accused challenged a cheque bouunce proceedings. The learned counsel for the petitioner primarily raised two grounds. First ground that has been raised by the learned counsel for the petitioner is that the alleged cheque in this case was issued only on 02.11.2015 by the first accused company. This petitioner had resigned from the company on 07.10.2015 itself and the same is reflected in the statutory document issued by the Registrar of Companies. Therefore the learned counsel would submit that the petitioner was not even a Director of the Company on the date when the cheque was issued in favour of the respondent.
The learned counsel for the respondent would submit that the issue with regard to the resignation of the petitioner cannot be dealt with by this Court since it is factual in nature and the same has to be decided only in the course of trial. He would further submit that necessary allegations has been made in the complaint against this petitioner and there are absolutely no grounds to interfere with the proceedings pending before the court below.
Insofar as the first ground that has been raised by the learned counsel for the petitioner, it is seen from records that the Form DIR -12 issued by the Registrar of Companies clearly point out the fact that the petitioner had resigned from the first accused company w.e.f.07.10.2015. This document which is in question is a public document. The Honourable Supreme Court had an occasion to deal with the issue as to whether Form-32 can be considered at the time of dealing with the petition under section 482 of Cr.P.C. The Honourable Supreme Court after dealing with the issue in detail has categorically held that such a record is sterling in nature and therefore that can be relied upon by the court at the time of dealing with quash petition.
In view of the above, this Court is of the considered view that the proceedings as against the present petitioner deserved to be quashed and accordingly the same is quashed.
Read the Order here:
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