Allahabad High Court: In a writ petition filed for quashing the First Information Report(‘FIR’) registered for offences under Section 505(2) of Penal code, 1860 (‘IPC’) with a further prayer to stay the arrest of the petitioner/accused in pursuance of the impugned FIR, the division bench of Ramesh Sinha and Narendra Kumar Johari, JJ. said that from the perusal of the FIR., prima facie, it cannot be said that no cognizable offence is made out, hence no ground exists for quashing of the FIR or staying the arrest of the accused.
In this case, it was alleged that the accused, an officer of Bhim Army, through his Facebook ID had made a hate speech against Chief Minister of U.P, Yogi Adityanath and Bageshwar Baba, Dhirendra Shastri.
The accused contended that he is working as an Operator at Richa Global Export Pvt. Ltd and has been falsely implicated in the present case with malafide intention.
The Court said that it is apparent that the accused had made derogatory and disrespectful comments on Chief Minister of U.P., Yogi Adityanath and Bageshwar Baba, Dhirendra Shastri. Moreover, the allegations made in the FIR are subject matter of investigation and at this stage it cannot be said that no offence, whatsoever is made out against the accused.
Placing reliance on Neeharika Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. v. State of Maharashtra, 2021 SCC OnLine SC 315 and on perusal of the impugned FIR. The Court said that prima facie, a case is made out against the accused. Further, it said that the submissions made by the accused relates to disputed questions of facts, which cannot be adjudicated upon by this Court in jurisdiction of under Article 226 of Constitution of India.
[Deepak v State of UP, 2023 SCC OnLine All 108, decided on 21-03-2023]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
Counsel for Petitioner: Advocate Prateek Shrivastava, Advocate Avinash Singh Vishen, Advocate Vishram Kumar Chauhan;
Counsel for Respondent: Government Advocate.