Putti Lal Vs State of U.P. and Ors. — Allahabad HC (2023) — LawSathi Research

Putti Lal Vs State of U.P. and Ors. — Allahabad HC (2023) — LawSathi Research

What the court decided

AI extract

Outcome

Permission to the applicant to file a discharge application through counsel before the court below within two weeks, to be decided within a further 30 days strictly in accordance with law; benefit forfeited if the application is not filed within the stipulated period, after which the trial court may proceed in accordance with law.

Issue for consideration

Whether the criminal proceedings of Crl. Case No. 95399 of 2018 and the impugned summoning order dated 18.12.2019 (arising out of charge-sheet dated 27.08.2019 in case crime no. 595 of 2018, Sections 147, 506, 427, 447 IPC) should be quashed under Section 482 Cr.P.C. +1 more

Court's answer

With the aforesaid observations (permitting a discharge application instead of quashing), the Section 482 application is disposed of; the criminal proceedings were not quashed.

Ratio / Principle

The applicant is permitted to file an application for discharge through counsel before the court below within a period of two weeks from the date of the order.

Key takeaways

If the discharge application is filed within the stipulated two weeks, the court below shall decide it within a further period of 30 days, strictly in accordance with law.ratio¶13
The benefit of the above direction is conditional: in case of any deviation in filing the discharge application within the stipulated period, the said benefit shall not be available to the applicant.ratio¶14
After the aforesaid period of time, the trial court is at liberty to proceed in accordance with law.

Detailed headnote1 paragraphs

Putti Lal v. State of U.P. & Ors. — Application U/S 482 No. 3093 of 2020, High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, Lucknow Bench (Shree Prakash Singh, J.), Order Date 3.10.2023. The applicant sought quashing of the criminal proceedings of Crl. Case No. 95399 of 2018 and the summoning order dated 18.12.2019, arising out of charge-sheet dated 27.08.2019 in case crime no. 595 of 2018 under Sections 147, 506, 427, 447 IPC, P.S. Sarojini Nagar, District Lucknow, pending before the Judicial Magistrate III, Lucknow. Counsel for the applicant contended there was no evidence against him and the prosecution rested only on Section 161 Cr.P.C. statements; the State opposed, submitting no abuse of process was involved. The Court did not quash the proceedings. Instead, permitting the applicant to move a discharge application through counsel, it directed that such application be filed within two weeks and decided by the court below within a further 30 days strictly in accordance with law; the benefit stands forfeited on any deviation in timely filing, after which the trial court is at liberty to proceed in accordance with law. Application disposed of.

Neutral Citation No. - 2023:AHC-LKO:63369

Court No. - 28

Case :- APPLICATION U/S 482 No. - 3093 of 2020

Applicant :- Putti Lal Opposite Party :- State Of U.P. And Ors. Counsel for Applicant :- Radhey Shyam Dwivedi,Kumar Jaikrit,Shrikant Mishra Counsel for Opposite Party :- G.A.

Hon'ble Shree Prakash Singh,J.

Heard learned counsel for the applicant, learned A.G.A. for the State and perused the record.

The instant application has been filed with prayer to quash the criminal proceedings of Crl. Case No. 95399 of 2018 as well as impugned summoning order dated 18.12.2019 arising out of charge-sheet dated 27.08.2019 in case crime no. 595 of 2018 under Sections 147, 506, 427, 447 of IPC, P.S. Sarojini Nagar District Lucknow, pending in the Court of learned Judicial Magistrate III, District Lucknow.

Learned counsel appearing for the applicant submits that there is no evidence at all against the applicant and only on the basis of statement recorded by the police under Section 161 of Cr.P.C., the whole proceeding has been initiated and chargesheet has been filed. He added that the criminal proceedings against the present applicant is nothing but harassment.

On the other hand, learned counsel appearing for the State has opposed the contention aforesaid and submits that there is no abuse of process of law and only factual matrix has been agitated before this before this Court and that could not be gone into at this stage, invoking the jurisdiction under Section 482 Cr.P.C. and thus the application is liable to be dismissed.

After the argument at length, learned counsel for the applicant submits that interest of justice would be sub-served, if this Court directs the court below to permit the applicant to appear before the court below trough counsel and file an application of discharge. He further submits that the court below may be directed to decide the discharge application within stipulated period of time, as may be fixed by this Court.

Learned AGA for the State has no objection to the aforesaid

submission.

In view of aforesaid, the applicant is permitted to file an application for discharge through counsel before the court below within a period of two weeks from today and if such an application is filed, the same shall be decided within a further period of 30 days, strictly in accordance with law.

It is clarified further that in case of any deviation in filing the discharge application within stipulated period, the abovesaid benefit shall not be available to the applicant.

After the aforesaid period of time the trial Court is at liberty to proceed in accordance with law.

With the aforesaid observation, the application is disposed of .

Order Date :- 3.10.2023 Anurag

Digitally signed by :- ANURAG SINGH High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, Lucknow Bench