Allahabad High Court
Smt. Suman Gautam vs State Of U.P. And 6 Others on 13 December, 2022
Bench: Mahesh Chandra Tripathi, Nalin Kumar Srivastava
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD
?Court No. - 47
Case :- CRIMINAL MISC. WRIT PETITION No. - 11578 of 2022
Petitioner :- Smt. Suman Gautam
Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 6 Others
Counsel for Petitioner :- Ramesh Chandra Yadav,Kailash Singh Kushwaha
Counsel for Respondent :- G.A.
Hon'ble Mahesh Chandra Tripathi,J.
Hon'ble Nalin Kumar Srivastava,J.
Heard Shri Ramesh Chandra Yadav, Shri Kailash Singh Kushwaha, learned counsel for the petitioner and Shri G.P. Singh, learned AGA for the State - respondents.
The present writ petition has been preferred under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, inter-alia, for the following reliefs :
(i) Issue a writ, order or an appropriate and necessary direction to the Investigating Officer to make investigation in pending first information reports by clubbing them and file one report under Section 173(2) CrPC in respect of all first information reports lodged against the petitioner at different point of time in District Meetut.
(ii) Issue a writ, order or an appropriate and necessary direction for clubbing all the charge-sheets together and one of them may be treated as leading charge-sheet and petitioner may be tried in one charge-sheet treating rests charge-sheets as part of the leading charge-sheet so that petitioner may face one trial in all Criminal Cases.
(iii) Issue a writ, order or an appropriate and necessary direction restraining the respondents from taking any coercive action against the petitioner during investigation in pending first information reports.
(iv) Issue any other suitable writ, order or direction, as this Hon'ble Court may deem fit and proper under the facts and circumstances existing in the present case.
Vide order dated 30.8.2022 learned AGA was accorded time to seek instructions in the matter and on that basis learned AGA has informed that in some matters, charge-sheet has already been forwarded to the competent Court. It is also informed that in other various First Information Reports, which have been lodged against the petitioner, the investigation has already been transferred to the Economic Offence Wing (in short 'E.O.W.'), Meerut and in all said matters investigation is being made by the E.O.W..
In this backdrop, learned counsel for the petitioner has placed reliance on a judgment passed by the Hon'ble Apex Court in Satinder Singh Bhasin vs. The State of Uttar Pradesh and another, (Writ Petition (s)(Criminal) No(s). 197 /2021, decided on 12.5.2022, wherein the petitioner has invoked the Writ Jurisdiction before the Hon'ble Apex Court for consolidation and clubbing of all First Information Reports in regard to Bike Bot Scheme, wherein the petitioner has been arrayed and will be arrayed as accused and appoint a Special Investigation Team for conducting the investigations in the said First Information Reports. The other reliefs have also been sought for. Learned counsel for the petitioner has placed reliance on the relevant portion of the said judgment, which are as under:
"Suffice it to note that the principal FIR filed in first point of time was registered by the Police Station Dadri, District Gautam Budh Nagar, Uttar Pradesh being FIR No. 206/2019 dated 12.02.2019.
As many as 118 FIRs have been filed across the State of Uttar Pradesh. However, one FIR is registered at Economic Offence Wing, New Delhi, being No. 123/2019 registered on 06.07.2019. We hasten to add that Govt. of NCT of Delhi has no objection to club this FIR along with the principal FIR i.e., FIR No.206/2019 dated 12.02.2019, referred to above.
Accordingly, following the principle enunciated by this Court in Amish Devgan vs. Union of India & Others, and in the peculiar facts of the present case, we, in exercise of power under Article 142 of the Constitution of India, accede to the relief claimed in terms of the prayer clause pertaining to consolidation of all FIRs, including registered in New Delhi, with FIR No. 206/2019 as the principal FIR and for being proceeded with in accordance with law. For, we are also of the opinion that multiplicity of the proceedings will not be in the larger public interest as well.
It is brought to our notice that investigation in respect of some FIRs has been completed and even charge sheet (s) have been filed by the Special Investigation Team (SIT), constituted by the State of Uttar Pradesh in respect of all these cases. In terms of this order, the chargesheet (s) filed in other cases shall stand merged with the charge sheet filed in the criminal case arising out of FIR No. 206/2019 dated 12.02.2019."
On the other hand, learned AGA has raised an objection that if all the matters are being investigated by the E.O.W., the reliefs, as has been sought, have lost its efficacy on the ground that one agency is investigating the matter. Moreover, in the matters wherein charge sheets have already been submitted it is always open to the petitioner to challenge the said charge sheets by way of Application U/S 482 CrPC. As such, no interference is warranted in the matter.
Having regard to the entire facts and circumstances of the case and considering the submissions made by the learned counsel for the parties and the dictum of the Apex Court in Satinder Singh Bhasin case (supra) we are of the opinion that once the matter is already ceased before the E.O.W., the petitioner would be at liberty to move appropriate application before the Superintendent of Police (E.O.W.), Meerut for consolidation and clubbing the First Information Reports lodged against her and in case any such application is moved within a week's time, we hope and trust that the same would be considered and disposed of in light of the dictum of the Hon'ble Apex Court in the aforesaid judgment of Satinder Singh Bhasin case (supra).
With the aforesaid observations, the writ petition stands disposed of.
Order Date :- 13.12.2022
safi
