Supreme Court - Daily Orders
The State Of Bihar vs Anil Singh @ Anil Kumar Singh on 22 July, 2021
Bench: A.M. Khanwilkar, Sanjiv Khanna
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IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION
CRIMINAL APPEAL NOS.660 OF 2021
(Arising out of SLP(Crl.)No. 4127 of 2019)
THE STATE OF BIHAR & ORS. Appellant(s)
VERSUS
ANIL SINGH @ ANIL KUMAR SINGH & ORS. Respondent(s)
O R D E R
1. Leave granted.
2. Heard counsel for the parties.
3. This appeal takes exception to the judgment and order dated 31.08.2018 in Criminal Writ Jurisdiction Case No.1226 of 2018 passed by the High Court of judicature at Patna, whereby the multiple First Information Reports (FIRs) have been quashed, being FIRs registered at Aurangabad, P.S. bearing P.S. Case Nos.97/2018, 98/2018, 99/2018, 100/2018, 101/2018 and 102/2018 on the finding that these multiple FIRs pertain to the same incident and, Signature Not Verified Digitally signed by therefore, should not have been registered. NEETU KHAJURIA Date: 2021.07.24 13:15:27 IST Investigation by the police was allowed to continue. Reason:
4. When the matter was brought before this Court, the 2 Court while issuing notice stayed the impugned judgment and order, which enabled the Investigating Agency to proceed with the inquiry/investigation in respect of concerned FIRs, who, in turn, on the basis of material collated during the investigation have filed police report under Section 173 of Code of Criminal Procedure before the Court.
5. It is not in dispute that after filing of the police report(s), the concerned Court has also taken cognizance of the offences and summoned the accused.
6. In light of this development, it may not be appropriate to examine the correctness of the view taken by the High Court in the present appeal. Instead, we would give liberty to the respondents/accused to apply/ argue for discharge before the concerned Court, if so advised. All contentions available in respect of that relief will have to be considered by the concerned Court on its own merits in accordance with law without being influenced by any observation made by the High Court in the impugned judgment, which we hereby set aside in terms of this order.
7. Needless to observe that in the application for 3 discharge, it will be open to the respondents/accused to urge the grounds taken by them before the High Court and referred to in the impugned judgment which, as aforesaid, will have to be considered on its own merits and in accordance with law uninfluenced by the observations made in the impugned judgment.
8. In addition, it will be open to the respondents/accused to apply to the concerned courts for clubbing trial of all the cases to be tried together, which application also may be considered by the concerned Court on its own merits and in accordance with law. Alternatively, it may be open to the respondents/accused, including to the prosecution to make a request to the Sessions Judge for allotting the charge sheets to one Court, to be proceeded in accordance with law.
9. In other words, we have kept all issues, contentions and reliefs available to the respondents/accused as also to the prosecution open, to be considered by the concerned Court on its own merits and in accordance with law.
10. Accordingly, the impugned judgment is set aside and the appeal is allowed in the above terms. 4
11. Pending applications, if any, stand disposed of.
..................,J.
(A.M. KHANWILKAR) ..................,J.
(SANJIV KHANNA)
New Delhi
July 22, 2021
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ITEM NO.8 Court 4 (Video Conferencing) SECTION II-A
S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A
RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
Petition(s) for Special Leave to Appeal (Crl.) No(s).4127/2019 (Arising out of impugned final judgment and order dated 31-08-2018 in CRWJC No. 1226/2018 passed by the High Court Of Judicature At Patna) THE STATE OF BIHAR & ORS. Petitioner(s) VERSUS ANIL SINGH @ ANIL KUMAR SINGH & ORS. Respondent(s) Date : 22-07-2021 This petition was called on for hearing today. CORAM :
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE A.M. KHANWILKAR HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SANJIV KHANNA For Petitioner(s) Mr. Manish Kumar, AOR For Respondent(s) Mr. Vikas Mahajan, Sr Adv.
Ms Swarupama Chaturvedi, AOR Mr Ashutosh Mohan, Adv Mr. Barun Kumar Sinha, Adv. Mr. Abhishek, AOR UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following O R D E R Leave granted.
The appeal is allowed in terms of the signed order.
Pending applications, if any, shall stand disposed of.
(NEETU KHAJURIA) (VIDYA NEGI)
COURT MASTER COURT MASTER
(Signed order is placed on the file.)