Allahabad High Court
Smt. Saroj Pathak And Another vs State Of U.P. Thru.Secy. Home And ... on 20 April, 2023
Bench: Ajai Kumar Srivastava-I
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD, LUCKNOW BENCH
?Court No. - 15
Case :- APPLICATION U/S 482 No. - 3802 of 2023
Applicant :- Smt. Saroj Pathak And Another
Opposite Party :- State Of U.P. Thru.Secy. Home And Another
Counsel for Applicant :- Saurabh Kumar
Counsel for Opposite Party :- G.A.
Hon'ble Ajai Kumar Srivastava-I,J.
1. Vakalatnama filed by Sri Shivam Pandey, Advocate on behalf of opposite party no.2 today is taken on record.
2. Heard Sri Saurabh Kumar, learned counsel for the applicant, Sri Rajeev Kumar Verma, learned A.G.A. for the State, Sri Shivam Pandey, learned counsel for the opposite party no.2 and perused the entire record.
3. This application under Section 482 Cr.P.C. has been filed by the applicant for quashing the summoning order dated 28.11.2019, passed in Criminal Case No.1737 of 2019, "State vs. Aryendra Pathak and others", pending before Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate-III, Room No.19, Sultanpur as well as charge sheet dated 24.11.2019 submitted in Case Crime No.222 of 2019, under Sections 419, 420, 447 I.P.C., Police Station Dostpur, District Sultanpur.
4. Learned counsel for the applicant has submitted that accused/ applicants are innocent, who have been falsely implicated in this case due to some ulterior reason.
5. His further submission is that the content of the first information report does not disclose any ingredients, which are essential to constitute offence under Sections 419, 420, 467, 468, 471 I.P.C.. He has also submitted that even during investigation, no credible evidence could be collected against the present accused/ applicants. Despite this fact, a charge sheet came to be laid mechanically against the applicants.
6. His next submission is that the learned trial court, vide order dated 28.11.2019, proceeded to take cognizance and consequently, the applicants came to be summoned to stand trial.
7. Learned counsel for the applicant, on the basis of aforesaid submissions, has submitted that the present proceeding is nothing but an abuse of process of this Court and a malicious prosecution too, which deserves to be quashed.
8. Per contra, learned A.G.A. for the State has vehemently submitted that the law of quashing has been fairly settled in the celebrated judgment rendered by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in State of Haryana vs. Bhajan Lal reported in 1992 Supp (1) SCC 335 and R.P. Kapur Vs. State of Punjab AIR 1960 SC 866.
9. His further submission is that in view of law laid down by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Ramveer Upadhyay vs. State of U.P. reported in AIR 2022 SC 2044 and Rathish Babu Unnikrishnan vs. State (NCT of Delhi) reported in 2022 SCC OnLine SC 513, truthfulness or otherwise of the prosecution version or defence version cannot be looked into at this stage. At such an early stage to rush of this Court for quashing itself is an abuse of process of this Court as the trial has not progressed substantially.
10. Thus, in view of aforesaid, learned A.G.A. has submitted that the present application under Section 482 Cr.P.C. devoid of merit and deserves to be dismissed.
11. Having heard the learned counsel for the applicant, learned A.G.A. for the State and upon perusal of record including the first information report and the charge sheet laid against the present applicants, this Court is of considered view that in view of law laid down by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Bhajan Lal's case (supra), R.P. Kapur's case (supra), Ramveer Upadhyay's case (supra) and Rathish Babu Unnikrishnan's case (supra), no ground for quashing the instant proceeding exists.
12. Accordingly, the prayer for quashing the impugned charge sheet as well as impugned summoning order is refused as this Court does not find any illegality, impropriety and incorrectness in the proceedings under challenge. There is no abuse of court's process either.
13. Even otherwise, the applicants will have an opportunity at the appropriate stage to move an application for discharge taking therein all the pleas factual and legal which may be available to them, in accordance with law. In case, such an application is moved before the learned trial Court, the learned trial Court shall dispose of the same by a speaking and reasoned order strictly, in accordance with law.
14. However, it is needless to mention that if the applicants apply for grant of bail, the court below shall consider and decide the same expeditiously, in accordance with law laid down by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Satender Kumar Antill vs. Central Bureau of Investigation and others : MANU/SC/1024/2021 and Satender Kumar Antill vs. Central Bureau of Investigation and another : 2022 SCC OnLine SC 825.
15. With the aforesaid observations, the instant application is finally disposed of.
Order Date :- 20.4.2023
Mahesh
