Bombay High Court
Shankar Suresh Jagtap And Anr vs The State Of Maharashtra And Anr on 19 January, 2021
Bench: T.V. Nalawade, M. G. Sewlikar
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Criminal Writ Petition 1574 of 2017.odt
THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY,
BENCH AT AURANGABAD.
CRIMINAL WRIT PETITION NO. 1574 OF 2017
1. Shankar Suresh Jagtap
Age : 36 yrs. Occu. Service,
R/o. Plot No.84, Survey No.21/1
Shivaji nagar Kedgaon
Dist. Ahmednagar.
2. Sachin Annasaheb Pote
Age : 37 yrs. Occu. Service,
R/o. Kedgaon Link Road
Bhushan nagar
Dist. Ahmednagar. ... PETITIONERS
VERSUS
1. The State of Maharashtra
Through the Police Station officer
Parner Police Station
Dist. Ahmednagar.
2. Subhash Yadav Autti
Age : 42 yrs. Occu. Agri.
R/o. Parner, Tal. Parner
Dist. Ahmednagar. ... RESPONDENTS
...
Mr. Niteen V. Gaware, Advocate for Petitioners.
Mr. G. O. Wattamwar, APP for Respondent No.1 / State.
Mrs. Sunita Sonawane, Advocate for Respondent No.2.
...
CORAM : T. V. NALAWADE &
M. G. SEWLIKAR, JJ.
DATE : 19th January, 2021.
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Criminal Writ Petition 1574 of 2017.odt
JUDGMENT: ( Per T. V. Nalawade, J. )
. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. By consent, heard
both the sides for final disposal.
2 The present proceeding is filed for relief of quashing and
setting aside of Crime No.I-248 of 2009, registered with Parner Police
Station, District Ahmednagar, for the offences punishable under
Sections 420, 465, 466, 467, 468, 471 read with 34 of the Indian
Penal Code. The crime was registered on the basis of order made on
Exhibit-1 in M.A. No.12 of 2009 by the Judicial Magistrate First Class,
Parner by which the order of investigation was made under Section
156(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
3 This Court has carefully gone through the contents of the
original complaint. The complainant has made allegations that the
accused, who include Tahsildar and staff members of Tahsil office, are
collecting huge money from the citizens by issuing identity cards to
show that they are senior citizens. It is contended that they have
been issuing bogus identity cards. It is contended that by
communication dated 24th January, 2006 and other communications,
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Criminal Writ Petition 1574 of 2017.odt
the District Collector had informed to the subordinate officers that they
should collect papers, applications given for getting identity cards by
senior citizens through the Dignity Foundation, institution, which was
started by the complainant. It is contended that when there was such
direction, the direction was not followed and the accused had issued
identity cards to senior citizens, which were more than one thousand.
It is contended that some such identity cards were collected by him
and on that basis he can say that the offence is committed by the
Tahsildar and his staff members.
4 A copy of Government Resolution dated 6th May, 2003 is
produced of the State Government for informant and it shows that for
process of issuance of the identity cards to senior citizens, the
institution, Dignity Foundation can be used as approval was given to
that institution by the Government and this institution was expected to
prepare laminated identity cards and hologram can be used on such
identity cards. The contends of the Government Resolution shows
that this was enabling provision and it was to help the senior citizens.
These applications collected by NGOs were to be handed over to
Tahsildar and the identity cards were to be issued by the Tahsildar,
which were to be laminated by NGOs.
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Criminal Writ Petition 1574 of 2017.odt
5 The circular dated 7th December, 2005 issued by the
District Collector, Nagar shows that he had informed to the concerned
that the certificate issued by the civil surgeon in respect of age of
senior citizen can be accepted if they are not having the record like
birth certificate.
6 In view of the aforesaid circular and the Government
Resolution, it can be said that the Government wanted to help the
senior citizens and as the aforesaid institution was ready to help the
senior citizens, approval was given to the institution of the informant to
do the aforesaid work. The present Petitioners are employees of the
Tahsil office and there are allegations against them of aforesaid
nature of the informant. Many times applications are made in big
number for getting identity cards by senior citizens and on those
occasions, the entries are not made of those identity cards in the
register, which can be maintained in this regard. If the identity card is
to be issued in laminated form or it is issued on some papers,
ordinarily, some charges are taken for that by the Government and if
the Government is charging fees for that, the informant cannot have
objection for taking such charges. In view of these circumstances,
this Court had asked the learned counsel for informant to show some
identity cards, which can be called as false or bogus. There is no
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Criminal Writ Petition 1574 of 2017.odt
such record with the informant. Thus, the present proceeding is not
filed with bona-fide intention and it appears that the informant wants
to do some business and for that he is interested in pressurizing the
persons from Tahsil office. In view of the aforesaid nature of
Government Resolution and the nature of allegations, it cannot be
said that any offence is committed by the Tahsildar or his staff
members. In the result, the following order is passed:
ORDER
I. The petition is allowed.
II. Relief is granted in terms of prayer clause (C).
III. Rule made absolute in those terms.
[ M. G. SEWLIKAR, J. ] [ T. V. NALAWADE, J. ]
ndm
