Court No. - 1
Case :- CRIMINAL MISC. WRIT PETITION No. - 10939 of 2018 Petitioner :- Ankit Gupta Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 2 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Krishna Dutt Awasthi,Girja Shanker Sen Counsel for Respondent :- G.A.
Hon'ble Ramesh Sinha,J. Hon'ble Dinesh Kumar Singh-I,J.
Sri Pranjal Mehrotra has filed his appearance on behalf of respondent no. 3 which is taken on record.
Heard Sri Krishna Dutt Awasthi, learned counsel for petitioner, Sri Pawan Kumar Mishra, Advocate holding brief of Sri Pranjal Mehrotra, learned counsel appearing for respondent no.3, Sri N.K. Verma, learned AGA for State and perused the impugned F.I.R. as well as material brought on record..
This writ petition has been filed with a prayer to quash the impugned F.I.R. dated 02.11.2017, registered as Case Crime No.0375 of 2017, under Sections 135 of Electricity Act 2003, Police Station Pakbara, District Moradabad.
It is submitted by the learned counsel for the petitioner that co-accused Mukesh has challenged the impugned FIR by means of Crl. Misc. Writ Petition No.5917 of 2018 in which a Coordinate Bench of this Court has granted relief, hence the petitioner is also entitled for the same relief.
It is submitted by learned counsel for the petitioner that there has been some dispute between the petitioner and the Electricity Department with respect to electricity settlement dues for which the present proceeding has been filed by the Electricity Department for a malicious prosecution. He further submits that the petitioner undertakes to approach the competent authority for compounding the offence. The petitioner also undertakes to clear all the electricity dues in question as the offence is compoundable.
Learned counsel appearing on behalf of the Electricity Department and learned AGA submitted that there is provision under Section 152 of the Electricity Act for compounding the offence to which the learned counsel for the applicant is ready to participate for compounding the proceeding before the authorities concerned.
Considering the facts and circumstances of the case, we dispose of the writ petition with the direction that the petitioner shall file his application/ representation for compounding before the concerned authority, who shall also decide the matter within one month from the date of production of certified copy of this order in accordance with law.
For period of one month or till the submission of police report under Section 173(2) Cr.P.C. whichever is earlier, the petitioner shall not be arrested in the aforesaid case.
(Dinesh Kumar Singh-I, J.) (Ramesh Sinha, J.) Order Date :- 30.4.2018 AU