Chandan Pandey v. State of U.P & Anr.

08.11.2019, of criminal case no. 3390 of 2019, arising out of case crime no. 64 of 2019, under Sections 308, 352, 452, 323, 504 IPC, P.S. Sikanderpur, District Ballia, pending in the court of C.J.M., Ballia.

It has been argued by learned counsel for the applicant that applicant is innocent and no prima facie case is made out against him. The allegation that applicant was involved in the alleged incident is wholly false. Both the injured persons have not named the applicant. Applicant has no motive at all to assault the injured persons. Learned counsel has referred the statements of witnesses and submitted that no prima facie case is made out against the applicant and that the impugned proceedings are liable to be quashed.

Learned A.G.A. has opposed the application and argued that in view of the allegations made in the first information report and the material collected during investigation, a prima facie case is made out against the applicant.

I have considered the rival submissions and perused the record.

The legal position on the issue of quashing of criminal proceedings is well-settled that the jurisdiction to quash a complaint, FIR or a charge-sheet should be exercised sparingly and only in exceptional cases. However, where the allegations made in the FIR or the complaint and material on record even if taken at their face value and accepted in their entirety do not prima facie constitute any offence or make out a case against the accused, the charge-sheet may be quashed in exercise of inherent powers under Section 482 of the Cr.P.C. In well celebrated judgement reported in AIR 1992 SC 605 State of Haryana and others Vs. Ch. Bhajan Lal, Supreme Court has carved out certain guidelines, wherein FIR or proceedings may be quashed but cautioned that the power to quash FIR or proceedings should be exercised sparingly and that too in the rarest of rare cases. In this connection, a reference may also be made to the case of R. Kalyani vs. Janak C. Mehta and Others, 2009 (1) SCC 516, Rupan Deol Bajaj vs. K.P.S. Gill (1995) SCC (Cri) 1059, Rajesh Bajaj vs. State of NCT of Delhi, (1999) 3 SCC 259 and Medchl Chemicals & Pharma (P) Ltd vs. Biological E Ltd. & Ors, 2000 SCC (Cri) 615. It has been held that if a prima facie case is made out disclosing ingredients of the offence, court should not quash the charge sheet/complaint. It is equally well settled that at this stage questions of fact cannot be examined and a mini trial cannot be held.

In the instant matter perusal of record shows that the informant has made allegations in the first information report that on

20.03.2019 applicant and co-accused came at his shop and started abusing him and when his employees, namely, Waseem and Rehan intervened, they were assaulted by the applicant and co-accused. The injury report of the injured persons has not been brought on record. However it appears from the statements of injured witnesses that they have sustained several injuries. Merely because the injured persons have not named the applicant, it would not be a ground for quashing of the impugned proceedings, particularly, when the informant has identified the applicant at the spot and in fact he has named the applicant in the first information report. Other eye witnesses have also named the applicant in their statements, recorded under Section 161 Cr.P.C. The submissions raised by learned counsel for the applicant call for determination on questions of fact, which may adequately be discerned / adjudicated only by the trial court. Even the submissions made on point of law can also be more appropriately gone into by the trial court. In the instant matter, in view of the allegations made in the first information report and the material collected during investigation, no case for quashing of impugned proceedings is made out. Accordingly, the prayer as made above is hereby refused.

However, it is directed that in case applicant appears / surrenders before the trial court concerned within a period of three weeks from today and applies for bail, his application shall be considered and decided expeditiously in accordance with settled law. For a period of three weeks from today or till the applicant appears / surrenders before the court concerned, whichever is earlier, no coercive action shall be taken against the applicant.

The application under Section 528 BNSS is disposed of in ANAND VERMA High Court of Judicature at Allahabad above terms. Order Date :- 10.7.2025/Anand