Allahabad High Court
Shila Devi vs State Of U.P. Thru. Prin. Secy. Home ... on 14 November, 2024
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD, LUCKNOW BENCH
?Neutral Citation No. - 2024:AHC-LKO:77859
Court No. - 14
Case :- CRIMINAL APPEAL No. - 3573 of 2024
Appellant :- Shila Devi
Respondent :- State Of U.P. Thru. Prin. Secy. Home Deptt. Lko And Another
Counsel for Appellant :- Satyendra Nath Mishra
Counsel for Respondent :- G.A.
Hon'ble Ajai Kumar Srivastava-I,J.
1. Heard Sri Satyendra Nath Mishra, learned counsel for the appellant and Sri Shikhar Srivastava, learned A.G.A. for the State-respondent No.1 and perused the entire record.
2. In view of the order, which is proposed to be passed today, notice to respondent No.2 is hereby dispensed with.
3. The instant criminal appeal under Section 14A(1) of SC/ST Act has been filed by the appellant with a prayer to set aside the impugned judgment and order dated 03.10.2024 passed by the Special Judge SC/ST Act, Sultanpur in F.R. No.335 of 2023 (Shila Devi vs. Jagannath Vishwakarma & others) whereby protest application moved by the appellant has been treated as complaint case in cursory manner without application of its wit and wisdom.
4. Submission of learned counsel for the appellant is that the impugned order dated 03.10.2024 is patently illegal as while passing the same learned trial court has failed to appreciate the fact that according to the First Information Report, the deceased was done to death by the accused persons named therein. The fact that the present appellant/complainant is aware of names of all the witnesses of this incident as also the place of alleged occurrence, therefore, only the protest application was directed to be treated as a complainant which is unsustainable.
5. Per contra, learned A.G.A. has opposed the aforesaid prayer. However, he could not dispute the factual submissions advanced by learned counsel for the appellant.
6. Having heard learned counsel for the parties and having regard to the aforesaid facts and circumstances of the case, it transpires that in Case Crime/F.I.R. No.134 of 2023 which is registered under Sections 302, 504, 506 I.P.C. and Section 3(2)(v) of SC/ST Act on the basis of an application moved by the complainant under Section 156(3) Cr.P.C., however, during investigation, after recording statement of various witnesses, police report in the form of final report came to be filed by the investigating officer. Pursuant to notice issued to the learned trial court, the complainant appeared before the learned trial court and filed a protest application. Upon hearing learned counsel for the appellant in support of protest application, learned trial court by means of impugned order dated 03.10.2024 directed to reject the final report No.1 dated 11.10.2023 and treated the protest application as complaint.
7. The fact that learned trial court proceeded to reject final report No.1 dated 11.10.2023 presupposes that learned trial court did not agree with the conclusion drawn by the investigating officer on the basis of evidence collected by investigating officer during investigation. Though this Court finds that the appellant herself had filed various photographs, a piece of rope which was allegedly used for commission of crime, the photographs of deceased, however, it is not decipherable from the impugned order that the same was relied upon by learned trial court while passing the aforesaid order. Therefore, in such a situation instead of directing the protest application to be treated as complaint another judicially permissible option was to direct the investigating officer to undertake further investigation, however, rejecting the final report and simultaneously directing the protest application to be treated as complaint, appears to be legally unsustainable.
8. It is also pertinent to mention that reasons are soul of any order which affects rights of any accused in a criminal trial. Bare perusal of impugned order, reflects that it is bereft of any reason whatsoever.
9. Thus in view of aforesaid overall discussion, the impugned order dated 03.10.2024 deserve to be set aside and is, accordingly, set aside.
10. The appeal is, accordingly, allowed. Learned trial court is directed to pass a fresh order on the basis of material available before learned trial court with utmost expedition in accordance with law.
(Ajai Kumar Srivastava-I, J.)
Order Date :- 14.11.2024
Shubhankar
