FIR against Police official quashed
Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, June 14: High Court has quashed the FIR against a police official and held that the FIR against the Government employee can’t be sustained when the matter is already under investigation before the department where he is employed.
“The cumulative effect of all that has been said and done is that the petition of the petitioner is allowed and, as a sequel thereto, the FIR bearing No. 58 of 2017, registered against him at Police Station, Maisuma, Srinagar, for the commission of offences punishable under Sections 420 and 467 of the erstwhile RPC as well as the proceedings, if any, emanating there from are quashed”, Court concluded.
The Court while quashing the FIR against the petitioner-Dara Singh working in railway police said his conduct as a Government employee which is under investigation before the authorities in the Department where he is employed cannot sustain in the eyes of law.
On perusal of the pleadings on record, coupled with the appreciation of the law it has come to the fore that the registration of the FIR in question, as registered against the petitioner-Singh working in the Police Department, lies in the factum of car loan having been taken by the petitioner from the Canara Bank.
In this context he has produced NOC with respect to liquidation of the car loan before the Department, which was, later on, found to be not genuine.
Accordingly, he has been placed under suspension and departmental proceedings were initiated against him and subsequently, came to be reinstated in service, while as the departmental proceedings are going on against him with respect to the aspect of production of fake NOC before the Department qua liquidation of car loan from the Canara Bank.
“When the departmental proceedings are going on against the petitioner, the registration of FIR would not only amount to initiating parallel proceedings for the same offences, but would, if allowed to go unabated, also result in violation of the process of law”, Court said.
Court besides that also recorded that the registration of FIR in question was also not warranted due to the fact that the case has a civil lineage or essence involving civil rights and obligations of the parties qua liquidation of car loan.
Furthermore, in light of the mandate of law as laid down by the Supreme Court the writ court said, the FIR does not clearly disclose the commission of cognizable offence on the part of the petitioner as would warrant its investigation.
In a criminal case court said, the veiled object behind a lame prosecution, on which the structure of the prosecution rests and the like, would justify the High Court in quashing the proceeding in the interest of justice and the ends of justice court added, are higher than the ends of mere law, though justice has got to be administered according to the laws made by the Legislature.
“The compelling necessity for making these observations is that without a proper realization of the object and the purpose of the provision which seeks to save the inherent powers of the High Court to do justice between the State and its subjects, it would be impossible to appreciate the width and the contours of that salient jurisdiction”, reads the judgment.
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