SHREE BAIDYANATH AYURVED BHAWAN PVT. LTD. versus STATE OF PUNJAB & ORS.

Citation: [2009] 12 S.C.R. 308 · Decided: 04-08-2009 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: S.B. SINHA · Disposal: Dismissed
Open in Lexace · Ask the AI about this case
Judgment (excerpt)

[2009] ·12 S.C.R. 308 
• 
A 
SHREE BAIDYANATH AYURVED BHAWAN PVT. LTD. 
..; 
v. 
STATE OF PUNJAB & ORS. 
(Transfer Petition (Criminal) No. 377 of 2006) 
B 
AUGUST 4, 2009 
[S.B. SINHA AND CYRIAC JOSEPH, JJ.] 
Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 - s. 406 - Transfer 
of cases - Power of - Petition for, transfer of complaints/Fl Rs 
~ I 
c for and against petitioner from courts situated in one State to 
courts situated in another State - Permissibility of - Held: Not 
permissible -
Apprehension does not appear to be 
reasonable one - All courts would act impartially and those 
facing trial would be dealt with very fairly - However, District 
D Judges of two cities where criminal matters are filed to 
conside1r desirability of l'ransferring them. 
... 
• 
The instant transfer petition is filed u/s. 406 Cr.P.C., 
1973 for transfer of cc1mplaints/FIRs for and against the 
E petitioner to the Delhi High Court or any other High Court 
or courts subordinate to such High Court from the 
Punjab & Haryana High Court and/or Courts subordinate 
thereto. 
" -
Dismissing the transfer petition, the Court 
F 
HELD: 1.1. Although section 406 of Cr.P.C.,1973 
empowers this Court tio transfer a criminal case from one 
Court situated in one State to another situated in another 
State but indisputably the convenience of the parties 
G including the witnesst:!S to be produced at the trial is a 
relevant considerationi therefor. [Para 17] [313-C-D] 
;... 
Abdul Nazar Madani v. State of Tamil Nadu and Anr. 
... 
(2000) 6 sec 204, referred to. 
308 
' 
H 
) 
j 
SHREE BAIDYANATH AYURVED BHAWAN PVT. LTD. 309 
v. STATE OF PUNJAB & ORS. 
1.2. At the time of filing of the transfer application, in 
A 
some of ~he matters investigations were pending. Some 
of the crimil'}al cases have been filed in the Ludhiana 
Courts by the company itself. It has an office at Ludhiana. 
[P;:ira 16] [313-B-CJ 
B 
1.3. Some apprehensions h(lve been expressed that 
justice may not be done to the company but keeping in 
view the facts and circumstances of this case, its 
apprehension does not appear to be a reasonable one. 
There is no doubt that all the Courts concerned would 
act impartially and the Company and its Directors '~nd C 
Officers who are facing trial before the courts concerned 
would be dealt with very fairly. However, the District 
Judges of Chandigarh and Ludhiana are requested to 
consider the desirability of transferring all the criminal 
matters (as far as practicable and legally permissible) to 
D 
one court so as to enable them to be disposed of one 
after the other. Furthermore, if and when applications for 
dispensation of personal appearance are filed by the 
accused, the same shall be considered by the courts 
concerned on their own merits. [Paras 18 and 19) [313-
E 
F-G; 313-H; 314-A-B] 
Case Law Reference: 
(2000) s sec 204 
Referred to. 
Para 17 
CRIMINAL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION : Transfer Petition 
(Crl.} No. 377 of 2009, 
F 
Sunil Gupta, T.S. Doabia, Rishi Maheshwari, Shally Bhasin 
Maheswari, Vikramjeet Banerjee, Anne Mathew, B. 
G 
Rangnathan, Atul Shankar Mathur, Shruti Verma (for Khaitan 
& Co.), Anil Grover, Manish Kumar, Pramod Swarup, V.P. 
Singh, Anil Kumar Jha, Sunita Sharma, Subhash Kaushik, Anil 
Katiyar (for D.S. Mahra), J.S. Bhatti Shree Pal Singh, Ajay Pal, 
Kuldip Singh, Javed Mahmud Rao for the appearing parties. 
H 
310 
SUPREME COURT REPORTS 
[2009) 12 S.C.R. 
A 
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by 
cl 
S.B. SINHA, J. 1. Th~:i present petition is filed under 
Section 406 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 for 
transfer of multiple cases by way of complaints/FIRS for and 
B against the Petitioner Shree Baidyanath Ayurved Bhawan Ltd. 
to the Delhi High Court or any other High Court or courts 
subordinate to such High Court from the Punjab & Haryana High 
Court and/or Courts subordinate thereto. 
2. Shree Baidyanath Ayurved Bhawan Pvt. Ltd. (hereinafter 
+- • 
c referred to as 'the company' for the sake of brevity) is a 
company registered and incorporated under the Indian 
Companies Act, 1956. It manufactures Ayurvedic medicines. 
For the purpose of distribution of its products, it engages 
Carrying and Forwarding Ag1:mts to receive goods from it, store 
D and sell them to the stockists. 
1--
3. The company appointed M/s. S. Bhatia Enterprises, 
" 
Ludhiana (Respondent No.5 herein) (for short, 'the firm') of 
which Pravee:i Bhatia, Ramkishan Bhatia, Ashwani Bhatia and 
E Promila Bhatia are partners. 
The agreement b
Excerpt shown. Read the full judgment & AI analysis in Lexace.