Deepandar Alias Deependra Raghav vs State of U.P. and Another — Allahabad HC (2025) — LawSathi Research

Deepandar Alias Deependra Raghav vs State of U.P. and Another — Allahabad HC (2025) — LawSathi Research

What the court decided

AI extract

Outcome

Application allowed; entire proceedings of Criminal Case No. 590 of 2025 (State vs. Deependra Raghav) arising out of Case Crime No. 1305 of 2022, under section 135 Electricity Act, Police Station Anti Power Theft, District Hamirpur, together with the charge sheet dated 02.06.2025 and the cognizance/summoning order dated 26.07.2025, pending before the learned Special Judge (E.C. Act), Hamirpur, quashed.

Issue for consideration

Whether criminal proceedings for theft of electricity under Section 135 of the Electricity Act, 2003 can continue where the offence has been compounded by the electricity department under Section 152(1).

Ratio / Principle

In view of the provisions of Section 152(1) of the Electricity Act 2003, the criminal offence of theft of electricity, being the first offence, had been compounded by the department; hence the proceedings for theft of electricity under Section 135 of the Electricity Act 2003 cannot continue.

Key takeaways

In any case, the proceedings in the present case appear to have been initiated by the Court in ignorance of the letter dated 18.01.2024 issued by the Executive Engineer of the Electricity Department.ratio¶15

Detailed headnote1 paragraphs

Allahabad High Court (Vivek Kumar Singh, J.), December 15, 2025 - Application u/s 528 BNSS No. 48647 of 2025 (Deepandar alias Deependra Raghav v. State of U.P. and Another) allowed. Entire proceedings of Criminal Case No. 590 of 2025 (State vs. Deependra Raghav) arising out of Case Crime No. 1305 of 2022 under section 135 Electricity Act, Police Station Anti Power Theft, District Hamirpur, along with the charge sheet dated 02.06.2025 and the cognizance/summoning order dated 26.07.2025 pending before the learned Special Judge (E.C. Act), Hamirpur, quashed: the criminal offence of theft of electricity, being a first offence, had been compounded by the electricity department invoking Section 152(1) of the Electricity Act 2003 (Executive Engineer's letter dated 18.1.2024 stating the FIR was lodged under misconception), as admitted by counsel for respondent nos. 2 and 3; the proceedings were further found to have been initiated in ignorance of that letter.

HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD

APPLICATION U/S 528 BNSS No. - 48647 of 2025

Deepandar Alias Deependra Raghav

	Versus	.....Applicant(s)
State of U.P. and Another		.....Opposite Party(s)
Counsel for Applicant(s) Counsel for Opposite Party(s)	: :	Manava Nand Chaurasiya G.A., Gaurav Singh

Court No. - 78

HON'BLE VIVEK KUMAR SINGH, J.

Heard Sri Manava Nand Chaurasiya, learned counsel for the applicant, Sri Dilip Kumar Shukla, Advocate holding brief of Sri Gaurav Singh, learned counsel for the Electricity Department as well as learned A.G.A for the State respondent.

Present application has been filed seeking to quash the entire proceedings of Criminal Case No. 590 of 2025 (State vs. Deependra Raghav) arising out of Case Crime No. 1305 of 2022, under section 135 Electricity Act, Police Station Anti Power Theft, District Hamirpur, as well as chargesheet dated 02.06.2025 and cognizance/Summoning order dated 26.07.2025, pending in the court of learned Special Judge (E.C. Act), Hamirpur.

The present application is directed against the charge sheet dated 02.06.2025 in Case Crime no. 1305 of 2022, under Section 135 Indian Electricity Act, 2003, P.S- Anti Power Theft, District- Hamirpur.

The main ground to challenge the chargesheet and the order passed by the court below is that the criminal proceedings for alleged theft of electricity under Section 135 of the Electricity Act, 2003 cannot continue, in as much as, criminal offence has been compounded by the electricity department. A letter of the Executive Engineer dated 18.1.2024 has been placed to demonstrate that the department decided to compound the criminal offence of theft of Electricity invoking power under Section 152(1) of the Electricity Act 2003. The said letter states that F.I.R. has been wrongly lodged against the applicant under misconception. All these facts are admitted to the learned

NA528 No. 48647 of 2025

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counsel for the respondent nos. 2 and 3/Electricity Department.

Considering the above, this court finds that in view of the provisions as contained in Section 152(1) of the Electricity Act 2003, the criminal offence of theft of electricity being the first offence had been compounded by the department, and hence the proceedings for theft of electricity under Section 135 of the Electricity Act 2003 cannot continue.

In any case, the proceedings in the present case appear to have been initiated by the Court in ignorance of the letter dated 18.01.2024 issued by the Executive Engineer of the Electricity Department.

In view of the above, entire proceedings of Criminal Case No. 590 of 2025 (State vs. Deependra Raghav) arising out of Case Crime No. 1305 of 2022, under section 135 Electricity Act, Police Station Anti Power Theft, District Hamirpur, as well as chargesheet dated 02.06.2025 and cognizance/Summoning order dated 26.07.2025, pending in the court of learned Special Judge (E.C. Act), Hamirpur, is hereby quashed.

The application under Section 528 BNSS is allowed .

(Vivek Kumar Singh,J.)

December 15, 2025

A.P. Pandey

Digitally signed by :- ANAND PRAKASH PANDEY High Court of Judicature at Allahabad