Smt. Sunita Devi v. State of U.P. and 3 Others

Court No. - 45 Case :- CRIMINAL MISC. WRIT PETITION No. - 18393 of 2023 Petitioner :- Smt. Sunita Devi Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 3 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Vidya Kant Tripathi Counsel for Respondent :- G.A. Hon'ble Vivek Kumar Birla,J. Hon'ble Vinod Diwakar,J.

¶1Heard Shri Vidya Kant Tripathi, learned counsel for the petitioner and Shri G.P. Singh, learned A.G.A. for the State respondents.

¶2The present writ petition has been preferred with the prayer to quash the impugned First Information Report dated 11.11.2023, registered as Case Crime No. 0084 of 2023, under Section 3/7 of Essential Commodities Act, 1955, P.S. Drumandganj, District Mirzapur and for a direction to the respondents not to arrest the petitioner in pursuance of impugned First Information Report.

¶3Although prayer for quashing of FIR has been made but without insisting on the same only submission is that all alleged offences are punishable with imprisonment upto seven years, therefore the police authorities are bound to follow the procedure laid down under Section 41-A Cr.P.C. The petitioner has been wrongly implicated and could not be arrested. Reliance has been placed on the judgement of Apex Court in Arnesh Kumar Vs. State of Bihar, (2014) 8 SCC 273 and Social Action Forum for Manav Adhikar Vs. Union of India, Ministry of Law and Justice and others in Writ Petition (Civil) No. 73 of 2015 with Criminal Appeal No. 1265 of 2017, Writ Petition (Criminal) No. 156 of 2017, Satendra Kumar Antil vs. Central Bureau of Investigation and Another, (2022) 10 SCC 51 and co-ordinate Division Bench of this Court in Vimal Kumar & 3 others Vs. State of U.P. & 3 others in 2021 (2) ACR 1147.

¶4We have gone through the impugned first information report and without interfering in the same, we are of the opinion that the guidelines framed by the Apex Court in the above noted judgement are equally applicable to the facts of the instant case.

¶5Accordingly, the instant petition also stands disposed of in terms of the judgements as noted above. Order Date :- 28.11.2023 Shafique High Court of Judicature at Allahabad