Court No. - 3
Case :- CRIMINAL MISC. WRIT PETITION No. - 24158 of 2018 Petitioner :- Akshat Kohli And 15 Others Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 03 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Vishal Tandon Counsel for Respondent :- G.A.
Hon'ble Rajesh Dayal Khare,J. Hon'ble Neeraj Tiwari,J.
Learned counsel for the petitioners has made a mention before this Court that he has come from Lucknow and he will remain out of station and prayed that the matter may be taken up out of turn. On his mention, the case is taken out of turn after summoning the file from the registry.
Heard learned counsel for the petitioners and learned A. G. A. for the State.
This writ petition has been filed by the petitioners with prayer to quash the F.I.R. dated 08.05.2018 lodged in Case Crime No.0006 of 2018, under Sections 498A, 323, 506 I.P.C., Section 3/4 of Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, Police Station Mahila Thana, District Shahjahanpur.
Learned counsel for the petitioners contends that the matrimonial discord between the petitioner no.1-husband and the respondent no.4 have been amicably settled vide settlement agreement dated 29.04.2018, copy of which is annexed as Annexure-2 to the writ petition and the settlement agreement has also been partly acted upon between the parties. Learned counsel has further contended that as per settlement agreement Rs. 3 lacs has been paid over to the respondent no.4 and remaining amount has been agreed to be paid after withdrawal of the pending cases and inspite of the settlement agreement arrived between the parties, the respondent no.4 has initiated the present proceedings not only against the petitioner no.1- husband but also against the entire family members of the husband-petitioner no.1, who are 16 in numbers. Learned counsel further contends that the petitioners have been falsely implicated in the present case by the respondent no.4 on general allegations, which is against the settled principles of law as laid down in the matter of Geeta Mehrotra and another Vs. State of Uttar Pradesh reported in 2012 (10) SCC 741. It is further contended that even bare reading of the F.I.R., would go to show that the prosecution story is highly improbable as such the prosecution of the petitioners cannot be sustained.
Per contra, learned A. G. A. submitted that from the perusal of the impugned F.I.R. it cannot be said that no cognizable offence is made out, hence the impugned F.I.R., is not liable to be quashed.
From the perusal of the F.I.R. it appears that on the basis of the allegations made therein prima facie cognizable offence is made out hence, there is no scope for interfering with the impugned F.I.R.
Therefore, the prayer for quashing the impugned F. I. R. is refused.
However, considering the submissions advanced by learned counsel for the petitioners and nature of allegations made in the F. I. R., it is directed that the petitioners shall not be arrested in the aforementioned case till submission of police report under Section 173 (2) or till credible evidence is collected, whichever is earlier.
With the aforesaid directions, this writ petition is disposed of finally.
Order Date :- 31.8.2018/S.Ali