Aabad Ponda's Blog

HOW TO CURB CORRUPTION IN INDIA By Aabad Ponda, Advocate, Bombay High Court , practicing on the criminal side. Corruption is the cancer of society and it is spreading its tentacles like wild fire in India. It is only increasing day by day and shamelessly is viewed as a part and parcel of our lives. Every day we read in the newspaper that some official, politician or public servant has been involved in corrupt activity but we don't even bat an eyelid. The sad part is that it is impossible for any newspaper not to carry an article on some form of corruption in India on a daily basis. In fact a dangerous message is being sent to right thinking persons that crime and corruption pay and on a regular basis one reads about the story of a corrupt person progressing monetarily from rags to riches and the average salaried earning class of persons or professionals cannot imagine making that kind of money in their lifetime even if they take many rebirths. Thus a very demoralizing state o...

NO CHANGE IN THE METHOD ADOPTED BY THE POLICE IN ARRESTING PERSONS FOR OFFENCES PUNISHABLE UP TO 7 YEARS AND BELOW IN SPITE OF AMENDMENTS TO SECTION 41 OF THE CRIMINAL PROCEDURE CODE, 1973 By:- Aabad Ponda, Advocate Bombay High Court, practicing on the criminal side The power of arrest by the Police is one of the most misused provisions since times immemorial. The monstrous abuse of the powers of the Police are not unknown but the abuse of power is even more damaging when it relates to the power of arrest. The Supreme Court of India has minced no words way back in 1994 when it pronounced the famous Joginder Kumar's case  and quoted The National Police Commission in its Third Report that the power of arrest is one of the chief sources of corruption amongst the Police. The National Police Commission in its Third Report referring to the quality of arrests by the police in India mentioned power of arrest as one of the chief sources of corruption in the police. The report suggeste...

SECTION 50 OF THE PREVENTION OF MONEY LAUNDERING ACT AS IT IS WORDED  IS BEING MISUSED IN VIOLATION OF THE FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT AGAINST SELF INCRIMINATION UNDER ARTICLE 20(3) OF THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA. By:- Aabad Ponda advocate Bombay High Court practicing on the Criminal side.  The scheme of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act is such that unless an offence is a scheduled offence and falling in parts A, B or C of the Schedule it would not attract the provisions of the Money Laundering Act. This is clear from the definition of money laundering  defined under Section 3 of the said Act which requires there to be proceeds of crime as defined under Section 2(u)  and which in turn relates to a scheduled offence. In other words the offence of money laundering is only in respect of offences found under the schedule to the Act which is located after Section 75 of the Act and has offences under various statutes which constitute the essential ingredient for an offence...

NEED FOR AMENDMENT TO SECTION 378 OF THE CRIMINAL PROCEDURE CODE 1973. By -Advocate Aabad Ponda B. A. LL.B (Practicing in the Bombay High Court on the Criminal Side) Chapter XXIX Of The Criminal Procedure Code 1973 deals with appeals. An appeal is a creature of the statute and no appeal lies from any judgment or order unless it is expressly provided for. Such a provision that permits the filing of an appeal must find a place either in the Criminal Procedure Code itself or in any other law for the time being in force by virtue of Section 372 of the Criminal Procedure Code 1973. This means that there must be a specific provision that permits a party to file an appeal against an appealable order from any judgment or order of a criminal court which is sub-ordinate to the court hearing an appeal. Section 378 of the Criminal Procedure Code deals with appeal against acquittals whether on a private complaint or on a police report. Section 378 of the Criminal Procedure Code is the princ...

Why Aires Rodrigues v. Vishwajeet P. Rane (2017 SCC OnLine SC 219) may need to be relooked at by the Supreme Court of India By -Advocate Aabad Ponda B. A. LL.B (Practicing in the Bombay High Court on the Criminal Side) "Justice is not a cloistered virtue; she must be allowed to suffer the scrutiny and respectful, though outspoken, comments of ordinary men." (vide Andre Paul Terence Ambard Versus The Attorney-General of Trinidad and Tobago AIR 1936 PC 141) While I have the highest respect which cannot be described by mere words for the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India I feel that the above Judgement may be required to be reconsidered at some stage by the Hon'ble Apex Court and I attempt to pen down my reasons for the same as under. The issue which arose in the above Judgment was with reference to a notification issued prior to the coming into force of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973, by virtue of Section 10 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1932. The ...

NEED TO AMEND PART A OF THE SCHEDULE PART A OF THE PREVENTION OF MONEY LAUNDERING  ACT, 2002. By -Advocate Aabad Ponda B. A. LL.B (Practicing in the Bombay High Court on the Criminal Side) The legislature seems to have omitted to incorporate offences of criminal misappropriation punishable under section 403 and 404 of the Indian Penal Code as well as offences of criminal breach of trust punishable under sections 406 to 409 of the Indian Penal Code while drafting the entire schedule to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002. The schedule under the said Act gets its importance from Sections 2(x) and  2(y) of the said Act which define schedule and scheduled offence respectively. A conjoint reading of these two sub-sections along with the principle definition of proceeds of crime as defined under section 2(u) of the said Act and Section 3 of the said Act clearly indicates that unless an offence falls within any of the Schedules to the said Act, it gets eluded an exclud...

SOLUTION TO THE DANGEROUS AND UNHEALTHY RISE OF CHEQUE BOUNCING CASES IN INDIA BY:- Aabad Ponda, Advocate, High Court, Mumbai, Practicing on the Criminal side. Honesty is the hallmark of a prosperous society and the caliber of a man is measured by how he keeps up a promise that he has made. In the olden times in ancient Indian society of Satyug it was often said PRAN JAYE PAR VACHAN NA JAYE which means a person may die but he would stand by his word. Today we are living in Kalyug and probably at its worst. It would be an understatement that there are less honest people than dishonest in society. If one looks into the mirror to gauge our degree of honesty and the same is required to be measured, then there is no better way to measure the same than to verify the statistics about the pendency of cheque bouncing cases under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881. A bare reading about the pendency of such cases in various parts of the country would send shivers up the s...

NEED FOR A MORE HUMANISTIC APPROACH BY THE LEGISLATURE IN SPECIAL STATUTES IN MATTER OF GRANT OF BAIL. BY- ADV. AABAD PONDA, PRACTICING ON THE CRIMINAL SIDE OF THE BOMBAY HIGH COURT. With the alarming rise in the number of under trial prisoners in the entire Country there is a need for the Legislature to rethink and make suitable Amendments in various statutes relating to the provisions governing Bail and Bail Bonds. The need for the same arises because crime only multiplies by the association of criminals in jails for long durations of time. This unhealthy association of under trials leads to crime increasing and conspiracy is being hatched in jails by these under trials whose idle minds act as devils workshops. In special statutes like the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act 1985, Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1967, Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act, 1999 and similar statutes which are made applicable in other parts of the country, grant of bail on h...

MISUSE OF SECTION 173(8) CRIMINAL PROCEDURE CODE BY THE INVESTIGATING AGENCIES IN CASES TO EXTEND THE CUSTODY OF ACCUSED By:- Advocate Aabad Ponda, Advocate, Bombay High Court, practicing on the Criminal Side. There can be no greater and more precious fundamental right than that of freedom and personal liberty which is dear to the very existence of every human being. Liberty to a person is akin to light to the eyes, sound to the ears and smell to the nose. In the case of a blind, deaf or otherwise impaired person who cannot enjoy these basic senses there is always a sense of extreme uneasiness. Similarly arrest and detention in custody of any person is always extremely painful and difficult to endure. The legislature has incorporated the provisions of Section 167 in the Criminal Procedure Code. This provision inter alia stipulates that where investigation relates to an offence punishable with death, imprisonment for life or imprisonment for a term of not less than 10 years, the...

WHY THERE IS UNDUE DELAY IN DISPOSAL OF CASES IN MAGISTRATES COURTS IN MUMBAI By:- Aabad Ponda, Advocate Bombay High Court, Practicing on the Criminal Side Apart from the fact that with the ever increasing population of this country particularly in a metropolis like Mumbai and there is no corresponding increase in infrastructure or appointment of judicial officers, one cannot lose sight of the fact that crime is on the increase and particularly because the public believes that courts cannot cope with the work load that the fear of law has gone away. It would not be wrong if one calls a spade a spade and openly propagates that in the Magistrates courts in Mumbai most of the time the cases are only adjourned and further adjourned giving rise to tareek pe tareek  syndrome that was a popular slogan in a Hindi movie to criticize the functioning lower courts. As a practicing lawyer, who started his career also from the lower ranks of the Magistrates Courts by conducting numerou...