Allahabad High Court
Om Prakash Yadav vs State Of U.P. And Another on 1 September, 2025
Author: Deepak Verma
Bench: Deepak Verma
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD
Neutral Citation No. - 2025:AHC:153531
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD
APPLICATION U/S 482 No. - 13 of 2025
Om Prakash Yadav
.....Applicant(s)
Versus
State of U.P. and Another
.....Opposite Party(s)
Counsel for Applicant(s)
:
Ravindra Kumar Yadav
Counsel for Opposite Party(s)
:
G.A.
Court No. - 72
HON'BLE DEEPAK VERMA, J.
1. Heard learned counsel for the applicant, learned A.G.A. for the State and perused the record.
2. The present application u/s 482 Cr.P.C. has been filed with prayer to quash the impugned charge sheet dated 26.11.2022 as well as cognizance order dated 23.01.2024 along with entire proceeding of criminal case No. 1748 of 2024 (State Versus Om Prakash Yadav and others) arising out of case crime No. 0337 of 2022, under Sections 406, 419 and 420 I.P.C., Police Station Kotwali, District Ballia, which is pending before the court of Learned Chief Judiciai Magistrate, District Ballia.
3. Learned counsel for the applicant submits that applicant is innocent and has been falsely implicated in the present case. FIR was registered U/s 406, 419, 420 I.P.C., thereafter, I.O. submitted charge sheet against the applicant and learned Magistrate took cognizance on police report and taken cognizance on 23.01.2024 against the applicant. On perusal of F.I.R., no offence under the alleged Section is made out. Learned court below has passed the cognizance order/summoning order without application of judicial mind. It is next submitted that proceedings under Sections 420 and 406 I.P.C. cannot run jointly in view of the judgment of Apex Court in Delhi Race Club (1940) Ltd. vs. The State of Uttar Pradesh & Anr., 2024 SCC OnLine SC 2248, the Apex Court has held in para 42 and 43, which are quoted herein below:
"42. When dealing with a private complaint, the law enjoins upon the magistrate a duty to meticulously examine the contents of the complaint so as to determine whether the offence of cheating or criminal breach of trust as the case may be is made out from the averments made in the complaint. The magistrate must carefully apply its mind to ascertain whether the allegations, as stated, genuinely constitute these specific offences. In contrast, when a case arises from a FIR, this responsibility is of the police ? to thoroughly ascertain whether the allegations levelled by the informant indeed falls under the category of cheating or criminal breach of trust. Unfortunately, it has become a common practice for the police officers to routinely and mechanically proceed to register an FIR for both the offences i.e. criminal breach of trust and cheating on a mere allegation of some dishonesty or fraud, without any proper application of mind.
43. It is high time that the police officers across the country are imparted proper training in law so as to understand the fine distinction between the offence of cheating viz-a-viz criminal breach of trust. Both offences are independent and distinct. The two offences cannot coexist simultaneously in the same set of facts. They are antithetical to each other. The two provisions of the IPC (now BNS, 2023) are not twins that they cannot survive without each other."
4. Considering the argument raised by applicant's counsel and in view of judgment passed by Hon'ble The Apex Court in the case of Delhi Race Club (1940) Ltd., cognizance/summoning order dated 23.01.2024 passed by learned Magistrate is without application of judicial mind.
5. Accordingly, the impugned order dated 23.01.2024 passed in criminal case No. 1748 of 2024, arising out of case crime No. 0337 of 2022, under Sections 406, 419 and 420 I.P.C., Police Station Kotwali, District Ballia, pending before the court of Learned Chief Judiciai Magistrate, District Ballia, is hereby quashed.
6. The matter is remanded back to learned Magistrate with direction that learned Magistrate shall pass an appropriate order within six weeks from the date of production of certified copy of this order keeping in view the order of Hon'ble The Apex Court passed in the case of Delhi Race Club (1940) Ltd. vs. The State of Uttar Pradesh & Anr.
7. With aforesaid direction, the present application under Section 482 Cr.P.C. is accordingly allowed.
(Deepak Verma,J.)
September 1, 2025
Nitin Verma
