Court No. - 83
Case :- APPLICATION U/S 482 No. - 8159 of 2021 Applicant :- Deepak Jain Opposite Party :- State Of U.P. And Another Counsel for Applicant :- Abhinav Gaur,Mohd. Rashid Siddiqui Counsel for Opposite Party :- G.A.
Hon'ble Rajeev Misra,J.
1. Heard Mr. Ankit Shukla, Advocate holding brief of Mr. Abhinav Gaur and Mr. Mohd. Rashid Siddiqui, learned counsel for applicant and learned A.G.A. for State.
2. Perused the record.
3. This application under Section 482 Cr.P.C. has been filed for a direction to Special Judge (S.C./S.T. Act), Firozabad to decide discharge application dated 10.02.2021 filed by applicant in Special Sessions Trial No.1681 of 2019 arising out of Case Crime No.119 of 2019, under Sections- 376, 323, 506 I.P.C. and Section- 3(2)(v) S.C./S.T. Act, Police Station- Tundala, District- Firozabad, within a time bound period. It is also prayed that till disposal of discharge application filed by applicant, no coercive action be taken against him by court below.
4. Learned counsel for applicant contends that applicant filed a discharge application in terms of Section 227 Cr.P.C. before court concerned seeking his discharge in above-mentioned sessions trial. However, in spite of the fact that a period of more than seven months has rolled by from the date of filing of application dated 10.07.2021, same has not been decided as yet. He, therefore, contends that interest of justice shall better be served in case a direction be issued to court below to decide discharge application within a time bound period.
5. Per contra, learned A.G.A. has opposed present application. Learned A.G.A. contends that discharge application has been filed by applicant before court below without surrendering before court below. In view of above, it is thus urged by learned A.G.A. that discharge application filed by applicant is not maintainable. Consequently, present application is liable to be dismissed.
6. Having heard learned counsel for applicant, learned A.G.A. for State and upon perusal of record, this Court is of the opinion that no useful purpose shall be served by keeping this application pending.
7. Accordingly, this application is finally disposed of with a direction to Special Judge (S.C./S.T. Act), Firozabad to decide discharge application dated 10.07.2021 filed by applicant in Special Sessions Trial No.1681 of 2019 arising out of Case Crime No.119 of 2019, under Sections- 376, 323, 506 I.P.C. and Section- 3(2)(v) S.C./S.T. Act, Police Station- Tundala, District- Firozabad, with all expedition and without granting any unnecessary adjournment to either of the parties, preferably within a period of three months, from the date of production of a certified copy/computer generated copy of this order which shall be filed by applicant before court below by means of a notary affidavit. It is further provided that since applicant was not taken into custody during the stage of investigation, discharge application already filed by applicant shall be treated to have been filed through counsel. For a period of three months from today or till the disposal of discharge application filed by applicant, no coercive action shall be taken against applicant.
8. It may however be noted that Apex Court in Pramod Suryabhan Pawar Vs. State of Maharasthra and Another, (2019) 9 SCC 608 has quashed criminal proceedings under Section 376 I.P.C. Facts of the case in hand are similar to above-mentioned criminal case. Court below while deciding discharge application filed by applicant shall take into consideration above-mentioned judgement rendered by Apex Court, which has been subsequently followed in Sonu alias Subhash Kumar Vs. State of U.P. and Another, 2021 SCC Online 181.
Order Date :- 20.9.2021 Saif