The Delhi High court has exercised its power under section 482 of CRPC and sought the response of the Centre and Delhi police to file their status report on the current issue before the next date of hearing. If the HC will not be satisfied with the response it has the power under section 482 to quash the FIR or issue such order as may be necessary to prevent the abuse of the process of any court after it will get the response of the Centre and Delhi police. If the response satisfies the High Court it can reject the petition filed by the 24 foreigners or it can give order which is best in the interest of justice.

High Court Seeks Reply on Quashing of FIR
High Court Seeks Reply on Quashing of FIR

FACTS

The present case is related to the tablighi jamaat in which 24 foreigners had filed a petition before the Delhi HC for quashing the FIRs lodged against them for attending the tablighijamaat event hence they are not allowed to return to their respective countries. The HC has sought the response of the Centre and Delhi police to file their status report on the current issue before the next date of hearing.

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According to the facts, 24 tablighijamaati who were foreigners and attended the tablighijamaat event which took place at NizamuddinMarkaz and violated the norms of the Visa and Covid-19 guidelines which were enforced to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in the country. An FIR was lodged against them for the violation of these norms and guidelines, therefore these foreigners had filed two separate petitions in which they have admitted their guilt in the FIR lodged by the crime branch of Delhi Police and pleaded for lenient punishments under the provisions of plea bargaining. Further, they were allowed to walk free on payment of varying fines and pleading guilty for minor offences related to the COVID-19 lockdown violations and even their deportation orders were issued. But they were not able to fly back to their respective countries due to the pendency of other FIRs lodged at Seelampur police stations. When the petitioners wanted to go back to their countries, it transpired that a second FIR is also pending against each of them and the charge sheet has been filed before the trial court and now they are unable to go back due to look out circulars (LOCs) being opened against them. The petitioners have sought quashing of two FIRs registered at police station Seelampur under various sections of IPC and the Epidemic Diseases Act. Therefore the Delhi High Court has sought the response of the Centre and Delhi Police to respond to petition.

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An information given under sub-section (1) of section 154 CrPC is commonly known as first information report (FIR) though this term is not used in the Criminal Procedure Code. It sets the criminal law in motion. An FIR is a piece of first information that is given to the police officer and the information must relate to a cognizable offence.Chapter XXI A (Section 265A to 265L) of the CRPC added by the Criminal law amendment Act of 2005 deals with the concept of Plea Bargaining.The plea bargaining is an agreement between the accused and the public prosecutor where the accused plead guilty in exchange for certain concessions.Section 300 of the CRPC states that a Person once convicted or acquitted not to be tried for same offence. This section embodies the common law principle contained in the doctrine of autrefois acquit and autrefois convict which means that if a person is tried and acquitted or convicted of an offence he cannot be tried again for the same offence or on the same facts for any other offence. This doctrine is also incorporated in Article 20 (2) of the Constitution.Section 482 saving of inherent power of the High Court, It is used only where the High Court is satisfied either that an order passed under the Code would be rendered ineffective or that the process of any court would be abused or that the ends of justice would not be secured that the High Court can and must exercise its inherent powers under Section 482 of crpc.

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As per the petition, the second FIR by the police was filed later on and in case of “Awadheshkumarsha alias Akhileshkumarjha and another vs. state of bihar” it was held that there can be no second FIR in the event of any further information being received by the investigating agency in respect of offence or same occurrence or incident giving rise to one or more offence. And acc. to Section 300 of the CRPC a person once convicted or acquitted not to be tried for the same offence, here in this case the petitioners were set free on payment of varying fines and pleading guilty for minor offences related to the COVID-19 lockdown violations and even their deportation orders were issued therefore the FIRs registered at other police stations are untenable in law in light of foreign nationals having entered plea bargaining in the same charges registered by the crime branch.

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The Delhi High court has exercised its power under section 482 of CRPC and sought the response of the Centre and Delhi police to file their status report on the current issue before the next date of hearing. If the HC will not be satisfied with the response it has the power under section 482 to quash the FIR or issue such order as may be necessary to prevent the abuse of the process of any court after it will get the response of the Centre and Delhi police. If the response satisfies the High Court it can reject the petition filed by the 24 foreigners or it can give order which is best in the interest of justice.

 For case specific Advice, Please contact Criminal Top/Best/Expert Punjab And Haryana High Court Advocate/Lawyer practicing in Chandigarh Panchkula Mohali Zirakpur Derabassi Kharar.

This post is written by – Abhishek Sharma

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