Uttarakhand High Court
SPA/328/2023 on 12 October, 2023
Office Notes,
reports, orders
or proceedings
SL.
Date or directions COURT'S OR JUDGES'S ORDERS
No
and Registrar's
order with
Signatures
12.10.2023 SPA No. 328 of 2023
Hon'ble Vipin Sanghi, C.J.
Hon'ble Rakesh Thapliyal, J.
1. Mr. Bhupesh Kandpal, learned counsel for the
appellant.
2. Mr. Ashish Joshi, learned counsel for the
respondent.
3. Issue notice.
4. Counsel for the respondent-bank appears and
accepts notice.
5. The appellant has assailed the judgment dated
29.08.2023, passed by the learned Single Judge in Writ
Petition (M/S) No. 2421 of 2023. By the impugned
judgment, the said Writ Petition has been dismissed.
In the Writ Petition, the petitioner was aggrieved by
the debit freeze imposed by the respondent-bank on its
bank account with the respondent-bank. The petitioner
had earlier preferred a Writ Petition, which was
disposed of, with liberty to the petitioner to make a
representation, and the respondent-bank was required
to decide the same. The respondent-bank considered
the representation, and rejected the same by placing
reliance upon the instructions received from the
Investigating Officer, Sub Inspector, Mahendra Pratap
Singh Chauhan, P.S. Kavinagar, Ghaziabad, contained
in the notice issued to the respondent-bank under
Sections 91/ 102 CrPC.
6. The submission of Mr. Kandpal is that the
petitioner has nothing to do with the investigation in
crime, in respect whereof FIR No. 702/23 has been
registered under Sections 419, 420, 467, 468, 471 and
120B IPC at PS Kavinagar, Ghaziabad. The petitioner
was not named as an accused in the FIR.
7. Be that as it may, we agree with the reasoning of
the learned Single Judge in the impugned order, that
the debit freeze was imposed by the respondent-bank
on the instructions of the Investigating Officer,
investigating the aforesaid FIR. Therefore, without
challenging the said notice issued by the Investigating
Officer, under Sections 91/ 102 CrPC, a direction could
not be sought to the respondent-bank to de-freeze the
appellant's bank account.
8. Mr. Kandpal states that he shall implead the
Investigating Officer, and also amend the prayer clause
in the Writ Petition to assail the notice under Sections
91/102 CrPC dated 12.08.2023 issued by the
Investigating Officer, vide Letter No.702/23.
9. We permit the appellant/ writ petitioner to do the
same. In case the petitioner takes steps in the
aforesaid terms, the learned Single Judge shall proceed
to consider the Writ Petition on its merits, without the
impugned order coming in the way of the appellant/
writ petitioner
10. The Special Appeal stands disposed of in the
aforesaid terms.
11. Consequently, pending application(s), if any, also
stand disposed of accordingly.
(Rakesh Thapliyal, J.) (Vipin Sanghi, C.J.)
12.10.2023 12.10.2023
Rahul
