Appeal under the SC/ST Act against the rejection of anticipatory bail. The High Court held that since cognizance was taken by the court below, bail is not maintainable, relying on Supreme Court precedents, and dismissed the appeal.
Prayer for anticipatory bail is rejected and the appeal is dismissed.
This page shows the compact analysis of this judgement. The full analysis — procedural history, issue-by-issue holdings with ratio and obiter, advocates, and paragraph-level evidence for every claim — is being added to the record in batches and will appear here when this judgement has been through it.
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA CRIMINAL APPEAL (SJ) No.1209 of 2023
Arising Out of PS. Case No.-23 Year-2022 Thana- SC/ST District- Banka
======================================================
... ... Appellants.
Versus
... ... Respondents.
======================================================
Appearance :
For the Appellant/s : Mr. Shashwat Pratyush, Advocate For the Respondent/s : Mrs. Usha Kumari-1, Special P.P. ======================================================
CORAM: HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE ANJANI KUMAR SHARAN ORAL ORDER
7 29-11-2023
learned Special Public Prosecutor for the State.
2. Learned Special Public Prosecutor for the State has informed that in compliance of the order dated 20.09.2023, she has informed the informant but none is present on her behalf.
3. This is an appeal under Section 14(A)(2) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 (hereinafter in short referred to as the 'SC/ST Act') against the refusal of prayer of anticipatory bail vide order dated 07.02.2023 passed by learned 1st Additional
Patna High Court CR. APP (SJ) No.1209 of 2023(7) dt.29-11-2023 2/3
Sessions Judge, Banka in connection with Banka SC/ST P.S. Case No. 23 of 2022 registered under Sections 341, 323, 354B, 504 & 506/34 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 3(1) (r) (s)/ 3 (2) (va) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
4. Opposite party no.2 is a Forest Guard and while she was regressing to her home, the appellants are said to have misbehaved and slated her in the name of caste.
5. It is submitted by learned counsel for the appellants that the appellants have no concern with the aforesaid occurrence. They have been falsely implicated in the case due to ulterior motive. There is no allegation of slating the informant in the specific name of his caste, hence, no offence under Section SC/ST Act is made out against the appellants. It is further submitted that the instant case has been instituted by the informant out of vengeance because the appellant no.1 has written a letter to the Range Officer complaining against her official work and the Range Officer issued a show cause to the informant. It is further submitted that after five days of receipt of the show cause, the present false and fabricated case has been lodged against the appellants. It is further submitted that after investigation, the police has submitted final form but the learned
Patna High Court CR. APP (SJ) No.1209 of 2023(7) dt.29-11-2023 3/3
Court below took cognizance against the appellants. Appellants have no criminal antecedent.
6. Learned Spl. PP for the State vehemently opposing the prayer for bail submitted that as cognizance has already been taken by the learned Court, the anticipatory bail application is not maintainable before this Court in view of the judgment passed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the case of Bachu Das Vs. State of Bihar and others reported in (2014) 3 Supreme Court Cases 471 and in the case of Prathvi Raj Chauhan reported in (2020) 4 Supreme Court Cases 727 .
7. Considering the facts and circumstances of the case and the verdict of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the case of Bachu Das (supra) and Prathvi Raj Chauhan (supra) , I am not inclined to enlarge the appellants on bail. The prayer for bail is hereby rejected.
8. Accordingly, this appeal is dismissed.
(Anjani Kumar Sharan, J)
Trivedi/-
U T
3 issues framed by the court
Whether anticipatory bail is maintainable and should be granted when cognizance has already been taken by the trial court.
Whether the alleged incident constitutes an offence under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act solely on the basis of caste slating.
Whether the appellants were falsely implicated due to ulterior motives involving official complaints and show cause notices.
Colour shows how this judgement treated each authority
Bachu Das Vs. State of Bihar and othersApplied¶6
(2014) 3 Supreme Court Cases 471
Prathvi Raj ChauhanApplied¶6
(2020) 4 Supreme Court Cases 727
3 provisions across 2 enactments
Arvind Kumar @ Arvind Kumar Pandey
Ashwini Kumar Jha @ Ashwani Jha
The State of Bihar
Khusboo Bharti
Anjani Kumar Sharan
As recorded by the court registry
Judgements on the same questions, provisions and authorities, from every court
