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Case Summary
| Citation | Akhil Kishore Ram v Emperor ,1938 , AIR 1938 Pat 185 |
| Keywords :- | |
| Facts :- | Akhil Kishore Ram resides at Katri Sarai, police station Giriak, in Patna District, where in his own name and under thirteen other aliases he carries on a business of selling charms and incantations which he advertises in a number of newspapers in several provinces of India, and dispatches by value payable post to persons answering the advertisements. Six of these transactions have been the subject matter of the charges. He advertised “Gupta Mantra” and claimed that person will achieve his desire. In case of unsuccessful reward of 100 Rs. was advertised. The petitioner was brought before the Magistrate on six charges which were tried in two batches of three each and was convicted of cheating on all the charges and sentenced in each trial to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 18 months. |
| Issues :- | Whether the accused has committed the offence of cheating? Whether the sentences imposed are excessive against accused? |
| Contentions :- | The substance of the prosecution case and the findings of the Courts below was that whereas by the advertisement clients were made to believe that “there is no necessity of undergoing any hardship to make it effective” and that “it is effective without preparation”, they were is appointed by finding on receipt of the leaflets that in order to work the miracle they must stare unwinking at the moon for fifteen minutes; a feat which if not impossible as some of the prosecution witnesses have represented it to be, is at any rate beyond the powers of ordinary human beings except by long training and preparation. The victims concerned in the six transactions which are before us have all said that had they known of the condition precedent to the using of the Mantra, they would never have sent for it; And the Courts below have accepted that evidence. Prospective purchasers are left to hope that by seven times repeating the Mantra they will attain their object whatever it may be with the assurance that in the event of failure they will get Rs. 100 reward and in case they should still be so sceptical as to wonder whether there is not a catch somewhere, there is the added assurance that the Mantra is effective without preparation and without the necessity of undergoing any hardship. The accused was liable to be sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment of either description for any one of the six offences of which he has been convicted, and in my opinion the sentences of substantive imprisonment imposed, namely eighteen months which will amount to no more than consecutive sentences of three months for each offence are not excessive; nor are the fines. |
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| Judgement :- | |
| Ratio Decidendi & Case Authority :- |
FULL CASE DETAIL
ROWLAND, J. –These two applicaons have been heard together, the facts in both being similar. The peoner was brought before the Magistrate on six charges which were tried in two batches of three each, and was convicted of cheang on all the charges and sentenced in each trial to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 18 months. These sentences have been directed to run concurrently. He was also sentenced at each trial to pay a fine of Rs. 500 in default to suffer further rigorous imprisonment for six months; the sentences of fine and of imprisonment in default are cumulave. Appeals to the Sessions Judge of Patna were dismissed.
The main argument put forward on behalf of the peoner is that assuming him to have done those things which the Courts below have found that he did, he has commied no offence and the second contenon is that even if the acts amounted to cheang, the sentences imposed are excessive. The facts are that the peoner Akhil Kishore Ram resides at Katri Sarai, police staon Giriak, in Patna District, where in his own name and under thirteen other aliases he carries on a business of selling charms and incantaons which he adverses in a number of newspapers in several provinces of India, and dispatches by value payable post to persons answering the adversements. Six of these transacons have been the subject maer of the charges.
Mr. Manuk at the outset asked us to bear in mind that what he called the materialist atude which regards spells and charms as a fraudulent pretence and sale of them as a swindle, though widely held, is not shared by a large body of opinion in the East parcularly in India and among Hindus, where the efficacy of magical incantaons is sll relied on by many and thought to have a religious basis; and he maintained that there was nothing in the evidence to show that the peoner did not propound the spells or incantaons adversed by him in good faith and with a genuine and pious belief in their efficacy; he urged that a convicon should not be founded on the mere fact that the Court had not faith in the efficacy of the incantaons. We may recognise the existence of contrasng points of view, but I would express their opposion differently. One outlook is exemplified by words which the dramast Shakespeare puts in the mouth of one of his characters:
->It’s not in mortals to command success.
->But we’ll do more, Sempronius, we’ll deserve it.
This is the mental atude of those who will spare no effort to secure results by their own endeavours and to whom, even if results fail them there is a sasfacon in having done all that man can do. There are those on the other hand who would like success to come to them but are averse from the effort of securing it by their own sustained exerons; it is not in them to deserve success but they hope by some device to command it. It is to the laer class that the adversements of the peoner are designed to appeal.
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