Fake Certificate Case: Allahabad HC Dismisses Revision Plea against UP Deputy CM Maurya

The Allahabad High Court has dismissed a criminal revision plea challenging a lower court’s 2021 order that rejected an application seeking the registration of a case against Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya. The lower court had dismissed the application based on allegations of Maurya using fake educational certificates in his election affidavit.

The high court rejected the revisionist’s application seeking condonation of the delay in filing the revision and urging the court to hear the petition on its merits. Justice Samit Gopal also dismissed the delay condonation application filed by Diwakar Nath Tripathi, along with the criminal revision petition, requesting the court to set aside an order passed by the additional chief judicial magistrate (ACJM) of Prayagraj on September 4, 2021.

The ACJM’s order was challenged in the high court after a delay of 327 days. The court, in its observation on the delay condonation application, stated, “There is no ground taken in the application for condonation of delay and the affidavit in support of it to show that there has been seriousness by the revisionist in pursuing the matter.”

“The averments in the affidavit in support of the application for condonation of delay are vague and unsubstantiated submissions. The revisionist has failed even remotely to demonstrate sufficient cause for condonation of delay,” the court added.

Dismissing the application, the high court noted, “This Court views the applicant to be casual, non-serious, and non-vigilant in preferring the present revision. Thus looking to the entire facts as stated above and the law as culled out along with the fact of non-prejudice, this Court is of the opinion that the application for condonation of delay is without any cogent reason, convincing justification, and substantiated material and as such is not inclined to condone the delay.”

“Since the application for condonation of delay is dismissed, the revision also would not survive and is also consigned to records,” the court observed.

The petitioner, Diwakar Nath Tripathi, had filed an application before the ACJM, Prayagraj, under section 156(3) of the Criminal Procedure Code, seeking direction for the registration of a criminal case against the Uttar Pradesh Deputy CM. The allegations included the use of fake educational certificates in the election affidavit and the acquisition of a petrol pump.