Court No. - 71
Case :- APPLICATION U/S 482 No. - 3648 of 2019 Applicant :- Pradeep Kumar And 4 Others Opposite Party :- State Of U.P. And Another Counsel for Applicant :- Lal Vijai Singh,Sudhir Mehrotra Counsel for Opposite Party :- G.A.
Hon'ble Siddharth,J.
Heard learned counsel applicants and the learned AGA for the State.
The present 482 Cr.P.C. application has been filed to quash the impugned order dated 21.07.2018 passed by learned Special Judge, Court No.1 (Anti Corruption) Bulandshahr in Special Case No.93 of 2016 (State Vs. Pradeep Kumar and others) as well as entire proceedings of Special Case No.93 of 2016 (State Vs. Pradeep Kumar and others) pending in the Court of learned Special Judge, Court no.1 (Anti Corruption), Bulandshahr.
Submission is that the applicants made separate discharge applications on separate grounds before the Court below but the Court below by a common order, has decided all the applications without taking into account the separate grounds raised in the discharge applications by the applicants. The court below has only relied upon the case laws regarding the scope of it interference under Section 227 Cr.P.C and by a common order rejected all the applications. The grounds raised by the applicants have not been considered.
Learned AGA has submitted that the Court below has recorded the finding that at the stage of considering the discharge application only the test of prima facie case has been applied by the Court below, which is justified and calls for no interference.
After considering the rival submissions and going through the discharge applications of the applicants, it is clear that the applicants had filed separate discharge applications raising number of grounds none of which have been considered by the Court below. The Court below has only recorded the finding that the Investigating Officer has submitted the charge-sheet and has found charges to be proved on the basis of material collected. Therefore, prima facie applicants are required to be subjected to trial.
Such finding is unwarranted under law and the procedure under Section 227 Cr.P.C is not a formality to be done by the Court below rather it involves the consideration of issues raised by the applicants seriously by the Court below. The order passed by the Court below is cursory in nature and cannot be sustained. The impugned order dated 21.07.2018 passed in aforesaid case is hereby quashed.
Application is allowed.
The matter is remanded to the Court below to pass fresh orders separately on each discharge application of each applicant after considering the grounds raised in the discharge applications within a period of three months from today. Applicants are granted two weeks time to file certified copy of this order before the Court below from today.
Order Date :- 29.1.2019 SS