Court No. - 47
Case :- CRIMINAL MISC. WRIT PETITION No. - 25915 of 2019 Petitioner :- Ashok Kumar Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 2 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Virendra Singh Parmar,Hariom Singh Counsel for Respondent :- G.A.
Hon'ble Manoj Misra,J. Hon'ble Gautam Chowdhary,J.
Heard learned counsel for the petitioner; learned A.G.A. for the respondents 1 and 2; and perused the record.
The instant petition seeks quashing of the first information report dated 28.11.2019 registered as Case Crime No.480 of 2019, under Sections 379, 411 IPC, Section 21, 4 of Mines and Mineral (Regulation and Development) Act, 1957, Sections 3, 5 of Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, Sections 3, 57, 7 of U.P. Minor Mineral (Concession) Rule, P.S. Maudaha, District Hamirpur.
The allegation in the impugned first information report is in respect of illegal mining and transportation of mineral tantamounting to theft.
The contention of the learned counsel for the petitioner is that the Mines and Mineral (Regulation and Development) Act, 1957 provides a specific procedure for lodging of a complaint and therefore lodging of the first information report is not justified.
It has been settled by the Apex Court in the case of State (NCT of Delhi) VS. Sanjay, (2014) 9 SCC 772, that in such matters, even offence punishable under Section 379 IPC is made out. As the first information report does disclose commission of cognizable offences, the matter would have to be investigated. As to what offences have been committed would depend on the material collected during the course of investigation and could, appropriately, be examined after submission of police report. However, on this ground, the first information report cannot be quashed. The petition is dismissed without prejudice to the right of the petitioner to apply for bail or anticipatory bail, as may be advised.
Order Date :- 20.12.2019 AKShukla/-