Allahabad High Court
Satya Narayan And 7 Others vs State Of U.P. And Another on 22 October, 2019
Author: Rajiv Gupta
Bench: Rajiv Gupta
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD ?Court No. - 71 Case :- CRIMINAL APPEAL No. - 6486 of 2019 Appellant :- Satya Narayan And 7 Others Respondent :- State Of U.P. And Another Counsel for Appellant :- Aradhana Singh Counsel for Respondent :- G.A. Hon'ble Rajiv Gupta,J.
Heard learned counsel for the appellants, learned AGA for the State and perused the record.
This criminal appeal has been filed by the appellants with the prayer to quash the summoning order dated 07.09.2019 and entire criminal proceedings of Complaint Case No.160 of 2017 (Ranjeet Vs. Satya Narayan and others), under Sections 147, 323, 149, 504, 506, 379 read with Section 149 IPC and Section 3(1)(10) of SC/ST Act, Police Station Badalapur, District Jaunpur.
As per the allegations made in the complaint and the statements recorded under Sections 200 CrPC and 202 CrPC, it is alleged that on 03.07.2015 at about 8:00 AM, the appellants had pulled down the ridges and forcibly cultivated his land and on being asked to refrain from doing the illegal act, the appellants abused the victim with the name of his caste with an intention to humiliate and intimidate him and also assaulted him by kicks and fists and threatened him of life.
Learned counsel for the appellants has submitted that from the perusal of the allegations made in the complaint and the material collected during the course of inquiry, no offence is disclosed against the appellants and the present prosecution has been instituted with a malafide intention for the purposes of harassment. He has pointed out certain documents and statements in support of his contention.
Per contra, learned AGA has submitted that from the perusal of the allegations made in the complaint and the material collected during the course of inquiry, prima facie offence is clearly made out against the appellants and as such, impugned summoning order cannot be quashed.
Moreover, at this stage, only prima facie case is to be seen in the light of the law laid down by the Hon'ble Apex Court in the cases of R.P. Kapur Vs. State of Punjab, AIR 1960 SC 866, State of Haryana Vs. Bhajan Lal, 1992 SCC (Cri.) 426, State of Bihar Vs. P.P. Sharma, 1992 SCC (Cri.) 192 and lastly Zandu Pharmaceutical Works Ltd. Vs. Mohd. Saraful Haq and another, (Para-10) 2005 SCC (Cri.) 283. The disputed defence of the accused cannot be considered at this stage.
The prayer for quashing the summoning order and entire criminal proceedings is therefore refused.
However, it is directed that if the appellants appear/surrender before the court below and apply for bail, their prayer for bail shall be considered and decided as expeditiously as possible after giving opportunity of hearing to both the parties.
With the aforesaid observations, this criminal appeal is finally disposed of.
Order Date :- 22.10.2019 Nadim