- (1.) WE have heard ShriZafar Abbas,learned Counsel for the petitioners and learned Additional Government Advocate representing the State.
(2.) THIS writ petition has been filed for staying the petitioners arrest and for quashing the First Information Report dated 25-7-2004 lodged by Shri Z. A. Siddiqui, Deputy Director Minority Welfare Department, U. P. at case crime No. 960 of 2004, under Sections 419/420/466/ 468/471/409 IPC, police station Kotwali Azamgarh, District Azamgarh. The allegations in the FIR were that in violation of the Government Order dated 8-11-1997, the scholarships meant for the minority students of Class-1 to 5 had been disbursed in cash and not by bearer cheques, which could have resulted in economic loss to the students for the period 1995-96 to 1998-99. The suggestion was that this may have facilitated embezzlement of part of the scholarship amount meant for the students by departmental officers, principals of the institutions and others such as the petitioners. This FIR was lodged in pursuance of an enquiry report regarding various schools on the basis of a Government Order dated 7-7-2004. Firstly, it was contended by the learned Counsel for the petitioners that the petitioner No. 1 was the Headmaster of M. N. Lal Public School Barohi Jianpur, District Azamgarh and petitioner No. 2 was elected Nagar Kchhetra Member of Jianpur, police station Kotwali, District Azamgarh and they were not named in the FIR, but they have been involved in this case pursuant to the investigation.
(3.) ON the allegations, it cannot be said that no offence has been committed so as to justify quashing of the FIR. The FIR is not expected to be an encyclopedia and is only registered for initiation of the investigation of a case and merely because some of the accused may not have been named initially, as their complicity may have come to light during investigation, can provide no ground for quashing the investigation against them. It has never been the law that if a particular accused is not named in the FIR, then the criminal case against him could not be investigated or that criminal proceedings could not take place against him or that the FIR against that particular accused should necessarily be quashed. Such an interpretation would give rise to an anomalous situation as in that event all FIRs in cases of circumstantial evidence where accused may not have been initially named, would necessarily have to be quashed or the arrest of the accused stayed. This would also amount to interference with the investigation which as has been authoritatively settled in various pronouncements of the Privy Council, Apex Court and this Court, is the prerogative of the police. According to the law reports it has only to be seen whether in a broad sense the FIR discloses commission of a cognizable offence, and neither any meticulous examination of the FIR, nor an evaluation of the genuineness of the allegations in the FIR or the eventual probability of conviction is to be gone into at this stage. The following lines from paragraph 11 of Zandu Pharmaceutical Works Ltd. v. Mohd. Sharaful Haque, 2004 (2) JIC 173 (SC) : (2005) 1 SCC 122, deserve to be mentioned here: "in a proceeding instituted on complaint, exercise of the inherent powers to quash the proceedings is called for only in a case where the complaint does not disclose any offence or is frivolous, vexatious or oppressive. If the allegations set out in the complaint do not constitute the offence of which cognizance has been taken by the Magistrate, it is open to the High Court to quash the same in exercise of the inherent powers under Section 482 of the Code. It is not, however, necessary that there should be meticulous analysis of the case before the trial to find out whether the case would end in conviction or acquittal. The complaint has to be read as a whole. If it appears that on consideration of the allegations in the light of the statement made on oath of the complainant that the ingredients of the offence or offences are disclosed and there is no material to show that the complaint is mala fide, frivolous or vexatious, in that event there would be no justification for interference by the High Court. When an information is lodged at the police station and an offence is registered, then the mala fides of the informant would be of secondary importance. It is the material collected during the investigation and evidence led in Court which decides the fate of the accused person. " (Emphasis supplied) Likewise paragraph 9 of S. M. Datta v. State of Gujarat, 2001 (2) JIC 845 (SC) : (2001) 7 SCC 659, aptly reiterates the same position: (9) We respectfully record our concurrence therewith. Criminal proceedings, in the normal course of events ought not to be scuttled at the initial stage, unless the same amounts to an abuse of the process of law. In the normal course of events thus, quashing of a complaint should rather be an exception and a rarity than an ordinary rule. The genuineness of the averments in the FIR cannot possibly be gone into and the document shall have to be read as a whole so as to decipher the intent of the maker thereof. It is not a document which requires decision with exactitude, neither is it a document which requires mathematical accuracy and nicety, but the same should be able to communicate or indicative of disclosure of an offence broadly and in the event the said test stands satisfied, the question relating to the quashing of a complaint would not arise. It is in this context, however, one feature ought to be noticed at this juncture that there cannot possibly be any guiding factor as to which investigation ought to be scuttled at the initial stages and investigations which ought not to be so scuttled. The First Information Report needs to be considered and if the answer is found on a perusal thereof which leads to disclosure of an offence even broadly, law Courts are barred from usurping the jurisdiction of the police since the two organs of the State operate in two specific spheres of activities and one ought not to tread over the other sphere. (Emphasis supplied ).;