Supreme Court criticises high court order on quashing FIR and on following ‘Arnesh Kumar’ judgement

The Supreme Court in the case Harsh R. Kilachand & Anr. Versus State of Uttarakhand & Ors observed the manner in which a Single Judge of the Uttarakhand High Court has disposed of various criminal writ petitions in a “cyclostyled manner”. The High Court only with a direction to the police to follow the judgment of the top court in Arnesh Kumar’s case and did not look unto the merit of the case before proceeding to make arrests. Thereafter, the top court did not appreciate this manner.

the Court further requested the Chief Justice of the High Court to list the Criminal Writ Petition “before another Judge” for Restoring the instant Criminal Writ Petition on the file of the High Court for the same as it is to be heard on its own merit and in accordance with the law.

the Single Bench of the Uttarakhand High Court had recorded in an impugned judgement of the High Court on April, 2022.

The learned counsel appearing for the petitioner submitted that before the court proceed to arrest the petitioner, the judgment of the Hon’ble Supreme Court, passed in ‘Arnesh Kumar vs. State of Bihar and Another, the Investigating Officer should follow before proceed to arrest the petitioner and this writ petition may be disposed of with a direction to the concerned Station House Officer. The learned Counsel of the Respondent have no objection on the submissions made by the leaned Counsel of Petitioner. Furthermore, the Criminal Writ Petition is disposed of with a direction to the Station House Officer Police Station Mukteshwar, District Nainital and the guidelines formulated by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in ‘Arnesh Kumar judgement needs to be followed by the respondent no.2

The bench comprising of Justice Gavai and the Justice Kohli heard Ms. Meenakshi Arora, Senior Advocate for the appellants and observed that in a cyclostyled manner, the learned Single Judge of the High Court disposing of the criminal writ petition as with her assistance Ms. Meenakshi Arora have gone through the various orders.

It was observed by the bench that the counsel for the appellants before the High Court tried to persuade the Court to appreciate the facts on merits for quashing of the FIR, in regard to which the complaint was wade but the impugned order does not even disclose even the bare facts for appreciation of the complaint and this turned out to be a reason for the appellants to approach the Supreme Court by filing this appeal.

The bench comprising of Justice B. R. Gavai and the Justice Hima Kohli observed while hearing an appeal for quashing FIR registered with Police Station Mukteshwar, District Nainital, Uttarakhand for the offence punishable under Section 420 IPC in February, 2022.

In the Meantime, the Petitioner was granted relief by the Supreme Court for no coercive action against them on the subject FIR for a period of 8 weeks.

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