Manish Kumar And Others vs State Of Odisha And Another
2023 Latest Caselaw 5456 Ori

                    IN THE HIGH COURT OF ORISSA AT CUTTACK

                                  CRLMC No. 2513 of 2019

            Manish Kumar and Others                    ....             Petitioners
                                                Mr. S.P. Mishra, Senior Advocate
                                           -versus-

            State of Odisha and another             ....       Opposite Parties
                          Mr. Prasanna Kumar Mohanty, Addl. Standing Counsel
                                          Mr. Rajiv Kumar Mahanta, Advocate

            CORAM:
            THE CHIEF JUSTICE

                                          ORDER

Order No. 08.05.2023

06. 1. The present petition seeks the quashing of complaint case i.e. Spl.

G.R. Case No.275 of 2019 pending in the Court of Addl. District Magistrate, Champua which has been lodged only against the employees of the Company and not the company itself. The present Petitioners are the Head Operations, Chief of Khandabandha Iron Mines and Senior Manager respectively of M/s. Tata Steel Limited, Khandabandha which have not been made parties to the complaint.

2. In view of the judgment of the Supreme Court in Aneeta Hada v. Godfather Travels and Tours Pvt. Ltd. (2012) 52 OCR (SC) 254 which has been followed by this Court in its judgment dated 26th August, 2019 in CRLMC No.1923 of 2018 (Odisha Mining Corporation Ltd. v. State of Odisha) holding that in the absence of making the Company itself a party is not open to the complainant to proceed only against the employees, the aforementioned complaint case i.e. Spl. G.R. Case No.275 of 2019 pending in the Court of Addl. District Magistrate, Champua and all proceedings consequent thereto are hereby quashed.

This order will not preclude the Complainant from approaching the Company for recovery of the amount owed to it.

3. The CRLMC is disposed of in the above terms. An urgent certified copy of this order be issued as per rules.

4. The Superintendent of the concerned branch is directed to communicate this order to the concerned Subordinate Court forthwith.

              Digitally signed by                               (Dr. S. Muralidhar)
SANJAY     SANJAY KUMAR JENA
                                                                   Chief Justice
KUMAR JENA Date: 2023.05.09
           12:14:35 +05'30'

   SK Jena/Secy.