Allahabad High Court
Lallan Patel And 7 Others vs State Of U.P. And Another on 17 May, 2025
Author: Manju Rani Chauhan
Bench: Manju Rani Chauhan
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD
?Neutral Citation No. - 2025:AHC:82151
Court No. - 52
Case :- APPLICATION U/S 482 No. - 44577 of 2024
Applicant :- Lallan Patel And 7 Others
Opposite Party :- State of U.P. and Another
Counsel for Applicant :- Arvind Kumar Singh,Sanjeev Kumar Kushwaha
Counsel for Opposite Party :- G.A.
Hon'ble Mrs. Manju Rani Chauhan,J.
Heard Mr. Arvind Kumar Singh, learned counsel for the applicants as well as Mr. Amit Singh Chauhan, learned A.G.A. for the State and perused the entire material available on record.
The present 482 Cr.P.C. application has been filed by the applicants with the prayer to quash the impugned Charge Sheet No.A41 of 2023 dated 17.02.2023 along with Cognizance/Summoning order dated 02.08.2023 and the entire proceeding of Criminal Case No.6007 of 2023 (State vs. Lallan Patel and Others), arising out of Case Crime No.431 of 2022, under Sections 147, 323, 325, 504, 506 & 427 I.P.C., Police Station- Turkpatti, District- Kushinagar and further prayer to stay the entire proceeding of the aforesaid case, pending in the court off learned Civil Judge (Senior Division)/Addl. Chief Judicial Magistrate Kasya, District- Kushinagar
Learned counsel for the applicants submits that an FIR has been lodged on 15.12.2022 at 22.50 hours by Chandrashwar Prasad (applicant no.2) against husband of opposite party no.2 and others for an incident dated 14.12.2022 at 9:00pm. He further submits that for the same incident, subsequently an FIR has been lodged on 18.12.2022 at 16:26 hours by opposite party no.2-Shail Devi, wife of Haresh Patel against the applicants. He also contends that the present case has been lodged as a counter blast to the earlier FIR lodged from the side of the applicants. He further submits that no offence against the applicants is disclosed and the present prosecution has been instituted with a mala fide intention for the purpose of causing harassment. He, therefore, submits that the charge-sheet, cognizance/summoning order as well as entire proceedings be quashed by this Court as the same is an abuse process of Court.
Learned A.G.A. for the State submits that once the FIR has been lodged from the side of the applicants, admitting the incident dated 14.12.2022 at 9:00pm wherein both the parties have sustained simple injuries, it cannot be said that the incident did not take place. He further submits that all the contentions raised by the applicants' counsel relates to disputed questions of fact. On the basis of material on record after conducting of statutory investigation under Chapter XII Cr.P.C. by the investigating officer, a strong prima facie case is made out against the applicants for the commission of the alleged incident. In support of his case, learned A.G.A. has placed reliance upon the judgments of the Apex Court in the case of Dilbag Rai Vs. State of Haryana & Others reported in AIR 2019 (SC) 693 and Central Bureau of Investigation Vs. Arvind Khanna reported in MANU/SC/1432/2019.
I have considered the submissions made by the learned counsel for the parties and have gone through the records of the present application.
This Court finds that the submissions made by the applicants' learned counsel call for adjudication on pure questions of fact which may adequately be adjudicated upon only by the trial court and while doing so even the submissions made on points of law can also be more appropriately gone into by the trial court in this case. The issue whether it is appropriate for this Court being the Highest Court to exercise its jurisdiction under Section 482 Cr.P.C. to quash the charge-sheet and the proceedings at the stage when the Magistrate has merely issued process against the applicants and trial is to yet to come only on the submission made by the learned counsel for the applicants that present criminal case initiated by opposite party no.2 are not only malicious but also abuse of process of law has elaborately been discussed by the Apex Court in the following judgments:-
(i) R.P. Kapur Versus State of Punjab; AIR 1960 SC 866,
(ii) State of Haryana & Ors. Versus Ch. Bhajan Lal & Ors.;1992 Supp.(1) SCC 335,
(iii) State of Bihar & Anr. Versus P.P. Sharma & Anr.; 1992 Supp (1) SCC 222,
(iv) Zandu Pharmaceuticals Works Ltd. & Ors. Versus Mohammad Shariful Haque & Anr.; 2005 (1) SCC 122,
(v) M. N. Ojha Vs. Alok Kumar Srivastava; 2009 (9) SCC 682,
(vi) Mohd. Allauddin Khan Vs. The State of Bihar & Others; 2019 0 Supreme (SC) 454,
(vii) Nallapareddy Sridhar Reddy Vs. The State of Andhra Pradesh & Ors.; 2020 0 Supreme (SC) 45, and lastly
(viii) Rajeev Kaurav Vs. Balasahab & Others; 2020 0 Supreme (SC) 143.
In view of the aforesaid, this Court does not deem it proper, and therefore cannot be persuaded to have a pre-trial before the actual trial begins. A threadbare discussion of various facts and circumstances, as they emerge from the allegations made against the accused, is being purposely avoided by the Court for the reason, lest the same might cause any prejudice to either side during trial. But it shall suffice to observe that the perusal of the F.I.R. and the material collected by the Investigating Officer on the basis of which the charge sheet has been submitted makes out a prima facie case against the accused at this stage and there appear to be sufficient ground for proceeding against the accused. I do not find any justification to quash the charge sheet or the proceedings against the applicants arising out of them as the case does not fall in any of the categories recognized by the Apex Court which may justify their quashing.
The prayer for quashing the impugned Charge Sheet No.A41 of 2023 dated 17.02.2023 and the Cognizance/Summoning order dated 02.08.2023 as well as the entire proceedings of the aforesaid case are refused, as I do not see any abuse of the court's process at this pre-trial stage.
The present application has no merit and is, accordingly, rejected.
Order Date :- 17.5.2025
Kalp Nath Singh
