Court empowered to take into account the overall circumstances of the case when exercising power u/s 482 CrPC . — Jharkhand HC
The Jharkhand High Court quashed proceedings against petitions accused of e taking asbestos, bricks etc. from the Church and keeping the same in the premises of the school and held that the allegations cannot be believed considering the petitioners were teachers of the school and the allegation is made of keeping the articles in the school premises and not taking away the same to their own house and selling the same and the court while exercising its jurisdiction under Section 482 of the CrPC or Article 226 of the Constitution need not restrict itself only to the stage of a case, but is empowered to take into account the overall circumstances.
Brief Facts:
An FIR was lodged against the petitioners for getting the bricks, iron pipe and asbestos lying in the Church premises and keeping the same in the premises of the school. The present petition is filed by the petitioner for quashing the order passed by the trial court which refused to quash the criminal proceedings against the petitioners.
Contentions of the Applicant:
The learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner contended that the petitioners were implicated in the present case as retaliation and no case is made out particularly considering the status quo in regard to the denationalization of the said school and the order taking cognizance as well as the order by which the petitioners have not been discharged is bad in law and it is an abuse of process of law.
Contentions of the Respondent:
The learned counsel appearing on behalf of the respondents contended that there were several persons but the police found two petitioners and a chargesheet was submitted against them. It was further contended that the revisional court rightly dismissed the discharge petition as the petitioners have been found to carry the articles of Church and the charge sheet has been submitted after several witnesses after examined by the police.
Observations of the Court:
The court stated that if articles such as asbestos, bricks etc. were there the petitioners could not have taken those on the premises of a school, and that too when one of the petitioners was a woman and this was not a case where the petitioners were trying to take away that property to their own house or they were trying to sell the property.
The court observed that the court while exercising its jurisdiction under Section 482 of the CrPC or Article 226 of the Constitution need not restrict itself only to the stage of a case, but is empowered to take into account the overall circumstances leading to the initiation/registration of the case as well as the materials collected in the course of investigation.
The court stated that in the present case, the allegations cannot be believed considering the petitioners were teachers of the school and the allegation is made of keeping the articles in the school premises and not taking away the same to their own house and selling the same. The court further stated that if the revision petition is rejected, the High Court is not required to interfere with the revisional order sitting under Section 482 of Cr.P.C. or Article 226 of the Constitution of India, however, if injustice is done, the High Court can interfere by invoking inherent power of CrPC.
The decision of the Court:
The court allowed the petition and quashed the entire criminal proceedings.
Case Title: Shambhu Nath Sahi Mishra vs. The State of Jharkhand and ors.
Coram: Hon’ble Mr. Justice Sanjay Kumar Dwivedi
Case No.: W.P. (Cr.) No. 154 of 2016