Court No. - 1 Case :- CRIMINAL MISC. WRIT PETITION No. - 25618 of 2018 Mahesh Chandravanshi And Another vs. State Of U.P. And 2 Others Hon'ble Ramesh Sinha,J. Hon'ble Dinesh Kumar Singh-I,J.
Heard Sri Ashish Jaiswal, learned counsel for the petitioners, Sri Gyan Prakash, learned counsel appearing on behalf of C.B.I., learned A.G.A. for the State and impugned F.I.R. as well as material brought on record.
This writ petition has been filed by the petitioners for quashing the impugned FIR dated 26.7.2018 registered as F.I.R. No. RC 1202018A0006 under sections 120-B, 420, 468, 471, 511 I.P.C., police station C.B.I., A.C.B., Ghaziabad.
Learned counsel for the petitioners submits that petitioner no. 1 is Chairman of Board of Secondary Education Madhya Bharat, Gwalior which is recognized under Chapter XIV of the U.P. Intermediate Education Act, 1921 while petitioner no. 2 was adviser of the said Board till the year 2014 and she was never the Office bearer of the Managing Committee of the Board in question. He submits that as per the contents of the F.I.R. it is alleged by respondent no. 3 that this Court by an order dated 26.5.2017 passed in Special Appeal Defective No. 630 of 2016 had directed C.B.I. at New Delhi for investigation on the ground that holding of examination and issuance of certificates without any authority of law is a designed criminal activity and Board of Secondary Education Madhya Bharat, Gwalior claims that it has all India Networking, therefore, a preliminary enquiry has been conducted by C.B.I. and found that several persons are involved in the offence. He submits that the Board of Secondary Education Madhya Bharat, Gwalior is recognized and the said order of this Court does not refer to the relevant provision under which it is recognized since the provision has not been placed before the division bench which ultimately resulted in passing of the aforesaid order, therefore, the students, who have undertaken study from the Board in question already filed review application before the Hon'ble Court. He submits that one Sanjay Kumar, who has obtained the appointment of Assistant teacher at primary school at district Kannauj, U.P. had submitted high school and intermediate qualification certificates said to have been issued from the Board of the petitioner which were received in the office of the petitioner's Board for verification whereupon it was found that the said certificates have not been issued from the petitioner's Board. Similarly, one Sadhna Katiyar also obtained educational certificate from the Board of the petitioner which also on verification was found not issued from the Board of the petitioner. He submits that both Sanjay Kumar and Sandhya Katiyar concealing the said fact had filed writ petitions before this Court and obtained some interim orders in their favour. He submits that in compliance of the order of this Court, the Secretary Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad filed an affidavit before this Court taking a stand that under the order of this Court an Enquiry Committee was constituted to enquire the legality of the examinations conducted by the Board of Secondary Education Madhya Bharat, Gwalior and on enquiry it was found that the Office of the Board of Madhya Pradesh as mentioned in the memo of appeal has already been shifted three year ago and the Ministry of M.P. Government as well as Madhyamik Shiksha Mandal, Madhya Pradesh has not granted any equivalency or recognition to the Board in question. He submits that due to the false report submitted by the Deputy Secretary U.P. Board as well as personal affidavit filed by the Secretary U.P. Board by concealing material facts, this Court passed the order dated 26.5.2017 by which an enquiry from C.B.I. was directed to be conducted not only against the real culprits but also against the genuine Board of petitioner, which was running in accordance with law. He further pointed out that in the year 2011, the Board was proposed to be de-recognized by U.P. Board of Secondary Education, therefore, challenging the aforesaid proposal the appellant Board through its Chairman-petitioner no. 1 filed a writ petition before this Court against the aforesaid proposal which was dismissed, however in Special Appeal No. 1106 of 2012 filed by the appellant, this Court vide judgment and order dated 3.7.2012 directed the State respondent to provide opportunity of hearing to the petitioner Board before coming to the conclusion while taking decision in response to the proposal made by the Board of Secondary Education U.P. but the State of U.P. without affording opportunity of hearing as directed by this Court, had de-recognized the aforesaid Board as per Chapter XIV of the U.P. Intermediate Education Act 1921 by issuing the Government order dated 8.3.2014 which was again challenged by the petitioner Board by way of writ petitions before this Court. He further submits that one Sanjay Mohan, who was appointed as Director of Education, Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad illegally pressurized several Educational Boards including the petitioner Board to pay handsome amount in his favour or stop their functioning from the State of Uttar Pradesh. Later on Sanjay Mohan was arrested by the Special Crime Branch for his involvement in several educational scams. However, before his arrest, Sanjay Mohan in the capacity of Director of Education (Madhyamik) vide communication dated 18.8.2011 asked the Secretary Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad to hold a meeting for taking decision to de-recognize the Board of Secondary Education Delhi and Board of Secondary Education Madhya Bharat Gwalior. The Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad it its meeting dated 29.9.2011 took a decision to de-recognize the aforesaid two Boards within the State of U.P. and sent the proposal before the State Government for amendment in the regulation of the U.P. Intermediate Education Act, 1921. Ultimately, the State Government without affording any opportunity of hearing to the petitioner's Board vide Government Order dated 5.3.2014 published in the official gazette on 8.3.2014, has de-recognized several Educational Board including the Board of the petitioner. After issuance of the aforesaid Government Order the State authorities started harassment of the students/candidates, who had already passed out their examination prior to the year 2014, therefore, they fell compelled to file writ petitions in which this Court has granted interim reliefs to the students/candidates by holding that the aforesaid government order is prospective in nature and the educational certificates cannot be implemented with retrospective effect. He submits that the petitioner Board has never undertaken any examination after the year 2014 within the State of U.P. since it has been de-recognized on 5.3.2014 and there is no allegation to the effect that the Board in question is running after the year 2014, hence the impugned FIR is liable to be quashed.
Per contra learned counsel appearing on behalf of the C.B.I. and learned AGA for the State vehemently opposed the prayer for quashing of the F.I.R. and submitted that the impugned F.I.R. has been registered on the basis of an order passed by this Court in Special Appeal Defective No. 630 of 2016 along with Special Appeal No. 453 of 2016 and Writ A NO. 2863703 of 2015 which were decided by a common order on 26.5.2017. It is stated that during the course of enquiry by the C.B.I. it was revealed that the Board of Madhya Bharat Gwalior was not an approved Board by any Government Body and also the exams of this Board were not equivalent to the exams conducted by other Boards of India which are established under law and further Board was also not the member of Council of Boards for School Education, Delhi (COBSE) which is mandatory for all educational Boards to get the membership of COBSE to run a Board or conduct any examination across the country. It was pointed out that Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad U.P. and Madhyamik Shiksha Mandal, Bhopal, M.P. had also informed that the Board of Secondary Education, Madhya Bharat, Gwalior is not constituted as per the statute and is not empowered to conduct examination and issue certificates thereof and it was stated that this Board is a fake Board created by suspected persons for the purpose of financial considerations.
After having heard learned counsel for the parties present and perused the impugned FIR as well as the other material brought on record, we are of the view that the F.I.R. discloses a cognizable offence, the prayer for quashing the same is hereby refused. However, we dispose of this writ petition with the following directions:
(i) Investigation of the aforesaid case shall go on but taking into account that petitioner no. 2 happens to be the wife of petitioner no. 1, it is directed that she shall not be arrested in the aforesaid case till the submission of police report under Section 173(2) Cr.P.C., subject to their cooperation during investigation.
(ii) As far as the petitioner no. 1 is concerned, the petition stands dismissed.
(Dinesh Kumar Singh-I, J.) (Ramesh Sinha, J.) Order Date :- 17.9.2018 Shiraz