New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday quashed the criminal proceedings arising from an FIR against Vinod Bihari Lal, Director of Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences (SHUATS), in connection with allegations of large-scale illegal religious conversions in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh.
A bench comprising justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said: “We strongly disapprove of this practice and cast it into the cold storage wherein the investigating authority proclaims an offence to be ‘proved’. We would like to remind that the role of investigating agencies is strictly circumscribed to conducting an impartial investigation into the alleged crime; the guilt or the innocence of the accused is for the trial court to determine”.
The apex court decided to quash the criminal proceedings stemming from an FIR registered in July 2018 at Allahabad under the provisions of the Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act, 1986.
"The registration of the subject FIR is in complete violation of the procedural safeguards. We are at pains to observe that authorities, entrusted with the solemn duty of safeguarding life and liberty, treat it with such casual indifference, truly a case of the fox guarding the henhouse," the bench said.
The bench said in the facts and circumstances of the case, more particularly, given the vague and general allegations levelled in the subject FIR, requiring the appellant to stand trial would amount to nothing but an abuse of the process of law. “Non-interference in such a case would result in miscarriage of justice”, said the bench.
“Upon evaluating the present case in the context of the allegations made and in light of the decisions referred, we have no hesitation in saying that the Allahabad High Court committed an egregious error in declining to exercise its jurisdiction under Section 482 of the CrPC to quash the subject FIR and all further proceedings in pursuance thereof qua the appellant”, said the apex court.
The apex court said it is convinced that the continuation of special sessions arising out of the 2018 FIR, registered at P.S. Naini, District Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, will be nothing but an abuse of the process of the law.
“The impugned judgment and order dated April 19, 2023 whereby the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad rejected the application under Section 482 of the CrPC, preferred by the appellant for quashing of the impugned proceedings; and rejection of the application preferred by the appellant for quashing of non-bailable warrants vide order dated February 28, 2023 and March 14, 2023, respectively are hereby set aside”, said the apex court.
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