Ravindra Singh S/o Shri Late Shri S.P. Singh, Aged About 56 Years R/o Shop v. 1 - The State Of Chhattisgarh Through The Secretary, Department Of Home Affairs Atal
Case Details
1 2025:CGHC:23023-DB NAFR HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH AT BILASPUR CRMP No. 730 of 2024 Ravindra Singh S/o Shri Late Shri S.P. Singh, Aged About 56 Years R/o Shop No. 357, Zonal Market, Sector 10, Bhilai Nagar, District Durg, Chhattisgarh, Working As Assistant Professor ( Retd. ) Mathematics And At Present Providing Coaching For Jee And Iit Competive Exams. --- Petitioner(s) versus 1 - The State Of Chhattisgarh Through The Secretary, Department Of Home Affairs Atal Nagar, Nava Raipur, District : Raipur, Chhattisgarh 2 - The State Of Chhattisgarh Through The Station House OfÏcer, Police Station Durg Kotwali, District : Durg, Chhattisgarh 3 - Pushpa Ramteke W/o Shri Anil Ramteke Aged About 46 Years R/o Ward No. 18, Gram Panchayat Hanodaa, Padmanabhpur Durg, Chhattisgarh. 4 - Ashish Mishra S/o Shri R.P. Mishra, Aged About 40 Years R/o Maitri Kunj, Risali Bhilai, Nevai, Durg, Chhattisgarh. --- Respondent(s) For Petitioner(s)
Legal Reasoning
: Mr. Shivang Dubey, Advocate. For Respondent(s) : Mr. Nitansh Jaiswal, Panel Lawyer No. 1 and 2/State Hon’ble Shri Ramesh Sinha, Chief Justice Hon’ble Shri Bibhu Datta Guru, Judge 2
Decision
Order on Board Per Ramesh Sinha, Chief Justice 11/06/2025 1. Heard Mr. Shivang Dubey, learned counsel for the petitioner as well as Mr. Nitansh Jaiswal, learned Panel Lawyer for the State/respondents No. 1 and 2. 2. By this petition under Section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973, the petitioners seek for the following relief(s): “1. That, this Hon'ble Court be kindly be pleased to call for entire record of the case pertaining to FIR no. 0553 of 2022 registered at Police Station Kotwali Durg, District- Durg 2 That, this Hon'ble Court be kindly be pleased to call for entire record of the case pertaining to FIR no 0497 of 2022registered at Police Station Kotwali Durg, District-Durg 3. That, this Hon'ble Court be kindly be pleased to call for entire record of the case pertaining to FIR No. 0363 of 2023 dated 09.12.2023 registered at Police Station Kotwali Durg, District-Durg 4. That, this Hon'ble Court may kindly be pleased to direct police authorities to grant protection to the Petitioner from malicious and false prosecution initated by Respondents 5. That, this Hon'ble Court may kindly be pleased to direct disciplinary action against police authorities for registering the false FIR against the Petitioner 6. That this Hon'ble Court may kindly be pleased to direct Respondent no 1 to grant appropriate compensation to the Petitioner to the tune of Rs. 10,00,000/- (Ten Lakh) for malicious prosecution brought against him by State Instrumentalities. 3 7. Any other relief as deemed fit by this Hon'ble Court including award the cost of the petition.” 3. The facts, in brief, as projected by the petitioner are that the petitioner is a retired Assistant Professor. A land bearing Khasra No. 760/4 area 0.5000 hect and Khasra No. 760/5 area 0.1000 Hect at village Hanodaa, District Durg is registered in the name of his wife Smt Surbhi Singh. He has been carrying out agricultural work from very long in the subject land without any disturbance or interference. In the year 2009, the petitioner received information that local land mafias with the help of village personnel have carved out a temporary and illegal 40 feet road from his land to use as approach road for their illegal plotting in adjacent lands. He preferred a civil suit registered as 33A/2009 (A-1236729/2009) before the Additional District Judge, Durg between parties Surbhi Singh through power of attorney holder, Ravindra Singh vs. Sarpanch Gram Panchayat, Hanodaa and two others, for declaration, permanent injunction, and damages. The said suit came to be decided after a span of 9 years, wherein the learned trial Court, vide judgement and decree date 22.03.2017 was pleased to decide the suit in favor of the petitioner. Thereafter, the petitioner sought to execute the judgment and decree dated 22.03.2017 by preferring an Execution Petition No. 107/2017 before Learned Seventh Additional District Judge Durg. During the pendency of execution proceedings the Sarpanch, Hanodaaa and concerned Revenue OfÏcer made several attempts to restore the suit property to original condition but each time they had to return bare hand, due to resistance by respondents and their allies. On 07.08.2021, a report was submitted by Patwari Village Hanodaaa stating that some unknown persons have destructed portion of Petitioner's land to build 4 illegal road. The petitioner suffered heavy damage due to construction of illegal road used as passage for land adjacent to petitioner's property. 4. The Sub Divisional OfÏcer Durg, Upper Collector Durg has written letter to concerned revenue ofÏcers directing that the temporary road constructed on petitioner's land must be restored to original condition, which is used to sell illegals plots. On 29.03.2022, after much efforts, a spot inspection was conducted in presence of concerned revenue ofÏcers to identify land belonging to petitioner. During inspection, illegal encroachments were identified and removed to restore the property to original condition in pursuance of execution proceedings. On 29.03.2022, 31.03.2022 and 12.04.2022, the petitioner made complaints to Police Station Padmanabhpur, Durg and requested for police assistance to help restore the property to original condition. On 30.03.2022, Sarpanch Hanodaa had also written a letter to concerned revenue ofÏcer requesting to provide police assistance to overcome nuisance created by accused persons. On 19.04.2022, the CEO Janpad Panchayat Durg also wrote a letter to concerned Police Station to provide assistance in removing illegal encroachment on petitioner's land to carry out Court's order. 5. On 29.04.2022, the petitioner was successfully handed over possession of his property in the presence of police authorities and Sarpanch Hanodaa, Secretary Hanodaa, for which an acknowledgment was also prepared. The petitioner on the same day constructed a boundary wall around his property bearing Khasra No. 760/4 and 760/5 to secure the premise from unwanted interference. On 30.04.2022, the petitioner made a complaint against respondent No. 4 and other accused persons for registration of FIR at Kotwali Durg. The said complaint was registered 5 as FIR No. 0497 of 2022 for committing offence under section 294, 323, 34, 497 and 506 of IPC. 6. Mr. Shivang Dubey, learned counsel for the petitioner submits that as a counter blast, on 12.05.2022, the respondent No 4-Ashish Mishra launched a malicious prosecution against petitioner after a delay of 14 days by registering a false and frivolous complaint before Police Station- Padmanabhpur, Durg. The said complaint was forwarded to jurisdictional Police Station at Kotwali Durg and came to be registered as FIR no. 0553 of 2022 for committing offence under section 294, 323, 34 and 506 of Indian Penal Code. On 14.05.2022, the learned lower Court also recorded satisfaction of Petitioner in the Execution Petition No. 107/2017, that he has been successfully handed over possession of suit property and in disposed of the execution proceeding. On 17.10.2022, the respondent No. 3 sent a legal notice to Mr. Manish Mishra and Sarpanch Village Hanoda admitting that 40 feet road shown in layout map is part of private land belonging to petitioner and it is not available for public use. It was further admitted that respondent was misrepresented about presence of 40 feet road, and she would initiate a legal action against sellers for committing fraud. 7. According to Mr. Dube, on 15.09.2023, a report was submitted by Revenue OfÏcer (Nayab Tehsildar, Durg) that an unapproved layout is prepared for Khasra no. 752 wherein a 40 ft. road is shown. However, after conducting spot inspection no such road is found, therefore proposed road shown in layout is rejected/invalid. This unapproved layout was used to sell 18 pieces of land adjacent to petitioner's property. On 08.08.2023, the Joint Collector District Durg vide letter dated 08.08.2023 directed the Station House In-charge P.S. 6 Padmabhpur, District Durg to provide protection to the petitioner from respondent No. 3 and 4, however, the concerned SHO, in complete violation of directions issued by Joint Collector, registered a false and baseless FIR against the petitioner. 8. Mr. Dubey submits that the petitioner has made several complaints and representations before concerned police authorities against the respondent No. 3 and 4 alleging that she is determined to rope petitioner in false prosecution to pressurize him to give up his private land. The petitioner has preferred civil suit No. 289A/2023 praying for permanent injunction and for cancellation of sale deed before the concerned Civil Court at Durg. On 28.11.2023, this Hon'ble Court has passed an order in Writ Appeal No. 484 of 2023 preferred by petitioner directing the Director, Town and Country Planning to decide the proceedings pending before him within a period of eight weeks. It is pertinent to mention here that the Director, Town and Country Planning, Durg vide letter dated 17.02.2022 issued direction to the respondent No. 3 husband that he has made some construction on his land without obtaining permission from proper authority. It was also directed to remove the illegal construction within seven days and restore the land to original condition. The said proceedings remain pending before Director, Town and Country Planning, Durg till date. Merely after passage of 11 days i.e. on 09.12.2023, the respondent No.3 has filed a bogus and false FIR against the petitioner to square off her vengeance for taking recourse to law. The complainant is seeking to punish petitioner by filing a false FIR and pressurize him to give up his claim on his private land. The sum and substance of the FIR is that between 10-12 pm/ noon dated 04.12.2023, the petitioner started hurling abuse on the complainant for using road adjacent to petitioner's land. The petitioner told her that it is his private 7 land and refrained complainant from using it. However, the fact of the matter is that during that time, the petitioner was present at his Kachandur farm loading rice on tractor and after which he went to society to sell it. The CCTV footage from the Kachandur farm clearly records his presence at the farm. Thereafter, the petitioner has also recoded his presence at the society by putting his thumb impression on the machine. The weighing receipt dated 04.12.2023 proves the petitioner's presence at the society at the time of commission of alleged offence. The distance of place of incident and Kachandur farm is 40 minutes and by no means petitioner could have committed the said offence. The petitioner is taking a plea of alibi based on documentary evidence of CCTV footage/photographs of Kachandur farm recording his presence at the time of incident. On 28/02/2024, a report was submitted by Nayab Tehsildar to SDO (Revenue) stating that Halka Patwari vide report dated 14.09.2023 has stated that there is no 40 ft. road available to reach Khasra no. 752 which is illegally divided into 18 parts. The road shown in Nazari Nakesha is liable to be quashed. Further, it is stated that land mafias have illegally encroached upon land in Village Hanoda and therefore action must be taken against such encroachers. It is further submitted that the allegations made in the first information report or the complaint, even if they are taken at their face value and accepted in their entirety do not prima facie constitute any offence or make out a case against the petitioner. 9. On the other hand, Mr. Nitansh Jaiswal, learned Panel Lawyer appearing for the State/respondent submits that when the police has prima facie found commission of a cognizable offence, the FIR has been registered and as such, no interference is warranted at this stage. 8 10.We have heard learned counsel appearing for the parties and perused the documents apended thereto. 11.From the pleadings and documents available, it seems that there exists some land dispute between the petitioner and the private respondents regarding which civil suit has also been filed. However, on perusal of the FIR (Annexure P/19) lodged by the respondent No. 3 against the petitioner, it transpires that the petitioner has hurled abuses to the respondent No. 3 for using the land belonging to the petitioner for going to their own farm. Further, in the FIR (Annexure P/10) lodged by the respondent No. 4 against the petitioner, the allegation is that the petitioner alongwith some other persons hurled abuses when they were restrained from constructing a boundary wall. 12.Both the FIRs relate to the year 2022 and 2023 whereas the present petition challenging the same has been filed in the year 2024 and after listing for the first time on 10.04.2024, this petition has been listed today after more than a year and no interim order has been passed in this case. The existence of civil dispute between the parties is an admitted position. Neither the petitioner nor the respondent/State is in a position to inform this Court as to what is the stage of investigation in both the aforesaid FIRs as after lapse of such a long period, the investigation would have been completed as no interim order has been passed in favour of the petitioner. The petitioner has failed to make out any case for interference and as such, this petition stands dismissed. Sd/- (Bibhu Datta Guru) JUDGE Sd/- (Ramesh Sinha) CHIEF JUSTICE Amit AMIT KUMAR DUBEY Digitally signed by AMIT KUMAR DUBEY Date: 2025.06.12 17:15:47 +0530