Allahabad High Court
Ramadhar Singh vs State Of U.P. And Another on 30 June, 2021
Bench: Saurabh Shyam Shamshery
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD
?Court No. - 83
Case :- APPLICATION U/S 482 No. - 7109 of 2021
Applicant :- Ramadhar Singh
Opposite Party :- State of U.P. and Another
Counsel for Applicant :- Apul Misra
Counsel for Opposite Party :- G.A.
Hon'ble Saurabh Shyam Shamshery,J.
The Court is convened through video conferencing.
The present application is filed on behalf of the applicant to quash the charge sheet No.441 of 2012, dated 14.12.2012 and the entire proceedings of Criminal Case No.49 of 2013, pending in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Bareilly under Sections 332, 353, 504, 506, arising out of Case Crime No.2706 of 2012, P.S. - Kotwali, District - Bareilly. Further prayer is made to stay the proceedings of the aforesaid case.
A video link sent to learned counsel for the applicant remained unresponsive.
Learned A.G.A. appears and submits that in the present case, cognizance was taken on 14.12.2012 and the order sheet indicates that applicant is not appearing before the concerned trial court and presently, bailable warrant has been issued against the applicant. There is no whisper in the applicant as to why the applicant has not appeared before concerned court.
I have perused the contents of the application.
It appears that applicant is not appearing before the trial court and is avoiding the due process of law. In the entire application, there is no whisper why the applicant has not appeared before the trial court. In support of his prayer, grounds which are mentioned in paras 27 to 30 are vague.
It is well settled law of inherent Power of the High Court under Section 482 Criminal Procedure Code 1973 that :-
I) 'Inherent Power' of the High Court under section 482 CrPC, an extraordinary power is with purpose and object of advancement of justice, which is to be exercised 'to give effect to any order under the CrPC', or 'to prevent abuse of process of any court', or 'to secure ends of justice', making arena of the power very wide, yet it is to be exercised sparingly, with great care and with circumspection, that too in the rarest of rare case.
II)It is no more res integra that exercise of inherent power could be invoked to even quash a criminal proceeding/First Information Report/complaint /chargesheet, but only when allegation made therein does not constitute ingredients of the offence/offences and /or are frivolous and vexatious on their face, without looking into defence evidence, however such power should not be exercised to stifle or cause sudden death of any legitimate prosecution. Inherent power does not empower the High Court to assume role of a trial court and to embark upon an enquiry as to reliability of evidence and sustainability of accusation, specifically in a case where the entire facts are incomplete and hazy, similarly quashing of criminal proceedings by assessing the statements under section 161 CrPC at initial stage is nothing but scuttling a full fledged trial.
III) There can not be any straight jacket formula for regulating the inherent power of this Court, however the Supreme Court has summarised and illustrated some categories in which this power could be exercised in catena of judgments. Some of them are State of Haryana Vs Bhajan Lal : 1992 Supp (1) SCC 335, Zandu Pharmaceutical Works Ltd Vs Mohd Sharaful Haque: (2005) 1 SCC 122, Ahmed Ali Quarashi and Anr Versus The State of Uttar Pradesh : 2020 SCC Online SC 107, Joseph Salvaraja A v. State of Gujarat (2011) 7 SCC 59, Sushil Sethi and another Vs The State of Arunachal Pradesh and others (2020) 3 SCC, 240, Priti Saraf and Anr Vs State of NCT of Delhi and Anr : 2021 SCC Online SC 206. Some categories/ circumstances as illustrations but not exhaustive are : allegations made in FIR / complaint, if are taken at their face value and accepted do not prima facie constitute any offence or are so absurd and inherently improbable to make out any case or no cognizable offence is disclosed against the accused, criminal proceedings is maliciously instituted with an ulterior motive and with a view to spite the accused due to private and personal grudge, or where there is a specific legal bar engrafted in any of the provisions of the Code or in the concerned Act to the institution and continuance of the proceedings or when dispute between the parties constitute only a civil wrong and not a criminal wrong, further courts would not permit a person to be harassed although no case for taking cognizance of the offence has been made out.
IV) In Sau. Kamal Shivaji Pokarnekar v. The State of Maharashtra : (2019) 14 SCC 350 , the Apex Court has laid emphasis on the principles laid down in two of its previous judgements namely, State of Karnataka v. M. Devendrappa : 2015 (3) SCC 424 and Indian Oil Corporation v. NEPC India Ltd. & Ors.: (2006)6 SCC 736 and held that quashing of criminal proceedings is called for only when the complaint does not disclose any offence, or the complaint is frivolous, vexatious, or oppressive and further clarified that defences available during a trial and facts/aspects whose establishment during the trial may lead to acquittal cannot form the basis of quashing a criminal complaint. The criminal complaints cannot be quashed only on the ground that the allegations made therein appear to be of a civil nature, if the ingredients of the alleged offence are prima facie made out in the complaint.
Considering the facts of the case and the legal position mentioned above, applicant on one hand, is not appearing before the trial court and on the other hand, has approached this Court in the year 2021 to quash the charge sheet dated 14.12.2012 after a period of about more than 8 years.
The application is silent on the explanation of such huge delay. This application is also liable to be rejected on the ground of delay and latches. There is no circumstances where this Court may exercise its inherent jurisdiction rather this application is abuse of process of law.
The application is bereft of merit and, is accordingly, rejected.
Order Date :- 30.6.2021
Rishabh
[Saurabh Shyam Shamshery, J.]
