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Memoirs of a Judge
When you are at a dead end, surrender unto God!
Sri. A. Venkat Rao

During the period from 1957 to 1960, I was working as Magistrate at Bantwal. Belthangady taluk also fell within my jurisdiction. There was no separate Court at Belthangady at that time.

There was one Assistant Engineer (Present designation A.E.E) in the P. W. D. at Belthangady, who was very honest and hard working. One day, he noticed freshly cut branches of trees piled up in the compound of a hotel in Belthangady and on making enquiries with the hotel keeper, came to know that they were branches of road side trees sold to him as firewood by the P.W.D. supervisor.

The Assistant Engineer then recorded the statement of the hotel keeper, signed the said cut branches of trees under a mahajar drawn up at the spot and made a complaint to the police against the P.W.D. supervisor for having illegally sold the said branches. He enclosed the statement of the hotelier and the mahajar to the complaint.

The Belthangady police registered a case and submitted the F.I.R. to the Court at Bantwal along with the complaint of A.E, mahajar and the statement of the hotel keeper. Thereafter, the supervisor was kept under suspension.

About 1-½ years later, the said supervisor filed a writ petition in the High Court, alleging that the A.E. had booked a false case against him and that he had been kept under suspension unnecessarily, with no further action having been taken by the Police.

The High Court then directed the Police to complete the investigation and file the final report within a month. Accordingly, the S. I. of Police, Belthangady submitted the charge sheet to the Court, within a week.

When the charge sheets are received, it was the duty of the Bench clerk of the Court to put up the charge sheet along with the F.I.R. and other records to the Magistrate for registering a case. In this particular case, the Bench clerk Sri. Parameshwar informed me that the F. I. R and other records sent with the F. I. R. were missing, even though an entry was found in the Inward Register for having received the F.I.R, but no entry was found in the Outward Register for having sent back the same.

Since the Bench clerk was a very honest and faithful, I had the fullest confidence on him. His wife was rolling beedies in her house to meet the expenses of the family. So I first asked the Sub – Inspector of Police, Belthangady to find out if the concerned F.I.R and the connected documents were available in the Police station.

After a few days, he reported that in spite of search made, the records were not traceable in his police station.

Thereafter, I and all my staff of the court made a thorough search of all the pending files, as well as all the disposed off files consigned to the Record Room, every evening after court hours for about 10 days. We could not however trace the said F.I.R. and connected records.

If the P.W.D. supervisor was to be acquitted for want of original records, it would have cast a slur on the Court and its staff, besides making it necessary to institute an enquiry. I was therefore quite worried when the said records could not be traced in spite of making all efforts.

I then prayed to God and literally bundled up my worries and handed over the same to HIM saying that it was left to him to do whatever he wanted. Surprisingly, I felt quite as peace after so handing over my worries to him.

You may believe it or not or claim that it is only a coincidence. After a few days, a constable from Belthangady Police station came to court and produced the missing records. He told that on account of the Station Writer having been transferred, the wooden box in which he was sitting and carrying out his work was opened and that the missing records were found inside that wooden box.

I thanked God and felt grateful to HIM.

Sri. Venkat Rao,
Retired District and Sessions Judge,
Saraswathipuram, Mysore.