Allahabad High Court
Sompal Arya And 3 Others vs State Of U.P. And Another on 9 May, 2023
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD ?Neutral Citation No. - 2023:AHC:99389 Court No. - 81 Case :- CRIMINAL APPEAL No. - 1213 of 2023 Appellant :- Sompal Arya And 3 Others Respondent :- State of U.P. and Another Counsel for Appellant :- Pawan Singh Pundir Counsel for Respondent :- G.A.,Alok Kumar Hon'ble Mohd. Faiz Alam Khan,J.
Heard Shri Pawan Singh Pundir, learned counsel for the appellants and Shri Alok Kumar, learned cousnel for opposite party no.2 as well as learned Additional Government Advocate for the State and perused the record.
The instant appeal under Section 14-A (1) of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 has been filed by the appellants, Sompal Arya, Anku, Sachin and Manoj Kumar with the prayer to allow the criminal appeal and set aside the cognizance order dated 16.7.2022 (State of U.P. Vs. Manoj and others), arising out of Case Crime No. 06 of 2022 under Sections 452, 323 & 34 IPC and 3(1) (Da) and 3(1) (Dha) SC/ST Act, Police Station Bhopa, District Muzaffarnagar.
Learned counsel for the appellants has made many factual submissions to demonstrate that the FIR was lodged on false and concocted facts just to pressurize and harass the appellants and the Investigating Officer without going deep into the matter in a cursory manner has submitted the charge sheet, and the court below has taken cognizance without considering the matter in right perspective and, therefore, the charge sheet, the order of the Magistrate, whereby the cognizance has been taken and process is issued are bad in law and the same be quashed.
Learned A.G.A. while controverting the arguments of the learned counsel for appellants submits that, the arguments of the learned counsel for appellants is, with regard to the factual aspects of the case which cannot be appreciated at this stage, as only a primafacie case is required to be seen at the stage of taking of cognizance and issuance of process.
Learned counsel for opposite party no.2 submits that no illegality or to say any irregularity has been committed by the Investigating Officer in submitting the charge sheet or by special court in taking cognizance of the offences and summoning the appellants to face trial.
Therefore, keeping in view the facts and circumstances of the case, the prayer for quashing the Charge-sheet, summoning order as well as all proceedings of the aforesaid case is hereby refused.
Hon'ble Apex Court in Hussain and Ors. Vs. Union of India (UOI) and Ors. reported in MANU/SC/0274/2017, In Re: To issue certain Guidelines Regarding inadequacies and deficiencies in Criminal Trials v. State of Andhra Pradesh and others, MANU/SC/0292/2021 have given various directions to criminal Courts for expeditious disposal of Bail applications. The ratio of above mentioned decisions is quite clear that, in the backdrop of Article 21 of the Constitution of India as the personal liberty of a person is at stake, the bail applications should be decided, expeditiously.
Hon'ble Supreme Court in Satender Kumar Antil Vs. Central Bureau of Investigation and others : (2021) 10 SCC 773 has issued various guidelines and provided a scheme with regard to the cases where the Charge Sheet has been filed without arrest of the accused person(s) during investigation and accused person(s) have Cooperated throughout in the investigation including appearing before the Investigating Officer whenever called. Apex Court has also provided special procedure with regard to such cases where the charge sheet has been submitted under offences punishable with up to seven years of imprisonment. The law laid down by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in S.K. Antil (supra) has been reiterated in Aman Preet Singh Vs. C.B.I. through Director : 2021 SCC OnLine SC 94.
In the backdrop of aforesaid decisions and keeping in view the entirety of facts and circumstances of the case and having regard to the request of learned counsel for the appellants, the appeal is disposed of with direction to the trial Court that if the appellants appear and surrender before the Court below within 30 days from today and apply for bail, their prayer for bail shall be considered and decided expeditiously by the Court below strictly in accordance with the law referred to herein above.
It is further provided that special court at the time of considering of bail of appellants shall pay due regards to the fact that a civil suit between the parties pertaining to some immovable property is pending before the competent court.
Order Date :- 9.5.2023 Muk