High Court
Case Details
Neutral Citation No. - 2025:AHC:48024 Court No. - 74 Case :- APPLICATION U/S 528 BNSS No. - 10663 of 2025 Applicant :- Parmeet And Another Opposite Party :- State of U.P. and Another Counsel for Applicant :- Arvind Giri,Jitendra Kumar Shishodia,Praveen Chaturvedi Counsel for Opposite Party :- G.A.
Legal Reasoning
Hon'ble Saurabh Srivastava,J. 1. Heard learned counsel for the applicants, learned A.G.A. for the State, and perused the entire record. 2. This application under Section 528 BNSS has been filed with a prayer to quash the charge sheet dated 06.09.2010, cognizance/summoning order dated 03.01.2011 as well as entire proceedings of Spl. Case No. 04 of 2011, titled as State v. Sudhir and 2 others, arising out of case crime no. 1486 of 2009, under Section 2/3 of U.P. Gangsters and Anti Social Activities (Prevention) Act, 1986, P.S. Civil Line, District Muzaffarnagar, pending in the court of Special Judge (Gangster Act) Muzaffarnagar. 3. Learned counsel for the applicants submits that there are three cases each against the applicant no. 1 and the applicant no. 2, based on which the provisions of Gangster Act have been invoked against the applicants. The cases against the applicant no. 1 are (i) Case Crime No. 604 of 2009, u/s 307, 326, 120-B/34 IPC and Section 3(2)(5) SC/ST Act, P.S. Civil Lines, District Muzaffarnagar, (ii) Case Crime No. 689 of 2009, u/s 307 IPC, P.S. Civil Lines, District Muzaffarnagar, (iii) Case Crime No. 691 of 2009, u/s 25A Arms Act P.S. Civil Lines, District Muzaffarnagar. The case against the applicant no. 2 are (i) Case Crime No. 604 of 2009, u/s 307, 326, 120-B/34 IPC and Section 3(2)(5) SC/ST Act, P.S. Civil Lines, District Muzaffarnagar, (ii) Case Crime no. 689/2009 u/s 307 IPC, P.S. Civil Lines, District Muzaffarnagar (iii) Case Crime no. 692/2009 u/s 25A Arms Act, P.S. Civil Lines, District Muzaffarnagar. The applicants have been acquitted in the aforesaid cases shown against them by the trial court vide orders 18.2.2021, 20.12.2010, copy of which are annexed as Annexure no. 5 to the application. Therefore, there is no basis to continue the instant proceedings, hence the proceedings of instant case are liable to be quashed. 4. Learned counsel for applicants also submitted that co-accused of predicate case crime no. 604/2009 filed Application u/s 528 BNSS no. 1833 of 2025 before this Court and on the basis of acquittal in predicate cases, co-ordinate Bench of this Court pleased to quash the entire proceeding of case under Section 2/3 Gangster Act vide order dated 27.02.2025. 5. Per-contra, learned A.G.A. has opposed the application, but could not dispute the submissions raised by the learned counsel for the applicants. 6. In the instant case, perusal of record shows that the proceedings under Gangster Act were initiated against the applicants mainly on the basis of three cases each against the applicant no. 1 and 2, in which the applicants have already been acquitted by the trial court. At this stage it would be pertinent to mention that recently in case of Farhana Versus State of U. P., SLP (Crl.) No.437 of 2023, decided on 19.2.2024, the Supreme Court held as under: "12. From a bare perusal of Section 2(b)(i) of the Gangsters Act, it would become apparent that the person alleged to be the member of the gang should be found indulging in anti-social activities which would be covered under the offences punishable under Chapters XVI, or XVII or XXII IPC. There is no dispute that the case set up by the prosecution against the appellants insofar as the offences under the Gangsters Act are concerned, is limited to Section 2(b)(i) reproduced supra and none of the other clauses of the provision have been pressed into service for the proposed prosecution. 13. Needless to say that for framing a charge for the offence under the Gangsters Act and for continuing the prosecution of the accused under the above provisions, the prosecution would be required to clearly state that the appellants are being prosecuted for any one or more offences covered by anti- social activities as defined under Section 2(b). 14. There being no dispute that in the proceedings of the sole FIR registered against the appellants for the offences under Chapter XVII IPC being Crime Case No. 173 of 2019, the appellants stand exonerated with the quashing of the said FIR by the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad by exercising the powers under Section 482 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, vide order dated 3rd March, 2023 passed in Application No. 7228 of 2023. 15. Hence, the very foundation for continuing the prosecution of the appellants under the provisions of the Gangsters Act stands struck off and as a consequence, the continued prosecution of the appellants for the said offence is unjustified and tantamounts to abuse of the process of Court. 16. As a consequence of the discussion made herein above, the impugned orders dated 14th November, 2022 and 6th December, 2022 passed by the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad are quashed and set aside. Resultantly, the impugned FIR being Crime Case No.424 of 2022 for offence punishable under Section 3(1) of the Gangsters Act, registered at Police Station- Bhognipur, District- Kanpur Dehat and all the proceedings sought to be taken thereunder against the appellants are hereby quashed. 17. The appeals are allowed accordingly" 7. From the aforesaid pronouncement of the Supreme Court, it appears that in aforesaid case the proceedings under Gangster Act were initiated on the basis of two criminal cases, which were quashed by the High Court and it was observed by the Supreme Court that since the very foundation of continuing the prosecution of the appellants under the provisions of Gangster Act stand struck off and consequently continuing prosecution of the appellant for offence under Gangster Act is unjustified and tantamount to the abuse of the process of the Court. The said case law is squarely applicable to facts of the present case. In the instant matter also, the proceedings of three cases, on the basis of which impugned proceedings were initiated, have been quashed and thus, the very basis of the impugned proceedings stands vanished and receded. Here it would be relevant to mention that there is no such evidence of any specific incident that the applicant was found indulging in anti-social activities covered under Chapter XVI, XVII and XXII, so as to bring them within the purview of Section 2 (b) (i) of the Gangster Act. 8. In view of the aforesaid, particularly, considering the fact that the applicants have been acquitted in the cases shown against them, based on which the proceedings under Gangsters Act had been initiated, hence, the instant criminal proceedings against the applicants for offence under Gangster Act are unjustified and tantamount to the abuse of the process of the Court, hence the impugned proceedings are liable to be quashed. sheet charge Accordingly, 9. dated 06.09.2010, cognizance/summoning order dated 03.01.2011 as well as entire proceedings of Spl. Case No. 04 of 2011, titled as State v. Sudhir and 2 others, arising out of case crime no. 1486 of 2009, under Section 2/3 of U.P. Gangsters and Anti Social Activities (Prevention) Act, 1986, P.S. Civil Line, District Muzaffarnagar, pending in the court of Special Judge (Gangster Act) Muzaffarnagar, against the applicants, are hereby quashed. 10. Application under Section 528 BNSS is allowed. Order Date :- 3.4.2025 Shaswat Digitally signed by :- Digitally signed by :- SHASWAT SINGH SHASWAT SINGH High Court of Judicature at Allahabad High Court of Judicature at Allahabad