Court No. - 46
Case :- CRIMINAL MISC. WRIT PETITION No. - 5731 of 2021 Petitioner :- Ch.S.S.Mallikarjuna Rao Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 2 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Ashok Shankar Bhatnagar Counsel for Respondent :- G.A.
Hon'ble Surya Prakash Kesarwani,J. Hon'ble Piyush Agrawal,J.
Heard Sri Ashok Bhatnagar, learned counsel for the petitioner and Sri Rishi Chaddha, learned A.G.A. for the State- respondents.
This writ petition has been filed praying for the following reliefs:-
"(i) To issue a writ order or direction in the nature of certiorari, quashing the impugned FIR No. 0035 of 2020, dated 12.01.2020, under Sections 405, 408, 420 and 426 I.P.C. and Section 43/43A, 66/66B &72/72A of Information Technology Act, P.S. Qwarsi, District Aligarh.
(ii) To issue a writ order or direction in the nature of mandamus commanding the respondents not to arrest the petitioner in pursuance of the impugned FIR No. 0035 of 2020, dated 12.01.2020, under Sections 405, 408, 420 and 426 I.P.C. and Section 43/43A, 66/66B &72/72A of Information Technology Act, P.S. Qwarsi, District Aligarh".
Petitioner is the Managing Director / CEO of Punjab National Bank, having its corporate Head Office at Plot No. 4, Sector 10, Dwarika, New Delhi-110075.
The impugned FIR has been lodged by the informant- respondent no.3 on account of the fact that her sister-in-law, namely, Gunjan Varshney has made a complaint to the Lokayukt, Uttar Pradesh about depositing huge amount of old currency note of Rs. 1000/- and Rs. 500/- in demonetization period in the year 2016-17, in her account and in the account of informant and others being the husband of the informant, who is working in the Entertainment Tax Department at Ghaziabad. She also submitted that the bank has to maintain the confidentiality and computer generated copy of her bank account, could not have been issued/provided to her sister-in- law without the permission of the informant and for that reason the impugned FIR has been lodged by her against two bank officers, namely, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Branch Manager and two private persons, namely, Gunjan Varshney and Ashutosh Chandra Varshney. In whole of the FIR, no role has been assigned to the petitioner herein, with respect to the alleged issuance of computer generated copy of the bank account of the informant to unauthorized persons. That apart, petitioner has joined as Managing Director/CEO at Punjab National Bank on 01.10.2019 whereas the alleged incident is prior to 01.10.2019. Thus, from the perusal of the impugned first information report, no offence is made out against the petitioner.
Matter requires consideration.
Issue notice to opposite party no.3 returnable at an early date.
Steps be taken by ordinary process as well as by registered post within one weeks.
All the respondents may file Counter affidavit within three weeks. Petitioners shall have two week thereafter to file rejoinder affidavit.
List/put up on 01.10.2021 in the additional cause list before the appropriate bench.
Considering the facts and circumstances of the case in its entirety, as an interim measure, it is provided that arrest of the petitioner shall remain stayed pursuant to the impugned FIR till the next date fixed.
Order Date :- 29.7.2021 T.S.