Sowmiya Rajendrakumar
Published on: 27 July 2022 at 17:49 IST
In a recent case, the Andhra Pradesh High Court allowed the quashing of FIR as the face value of the allegations made in the FIR or the complaint was baseless and no preliminary enquiry was conducted before registration of the FIR in light of guidelines laid down in Lalitha Kumari vs. State of Uttar Pradesh (2014).
“It is clear that where the allegations made in the FIR or complaint, and the evidence collected in support of the same, do not discloses the commission of offence, and make out the case against the accused, it is liable to be quashed. In the instant case, though they have made allegations against the petitioner, there are no material to show that the petitioner himself has done the acts. “said the court.
It was contended by the counsel for Petitioner that none of the allegations of the FIR would attract the ingredients of the Sections mentioned in the FIR.
It was also made clear that the scope of preliminary inquiry is not to verify the veracity or otherwise of the information received but only to ascertain whether the information reveals any cognizable offence.
Furthermore, Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board was run by a Board consisting of 21 members with Chief minister as the Chairman and the decisions were taken collectively by the the board. Hence, making allegation solely against the petitioner smacks malafide on part of the State of Andhra Pradesh, it was submitted.
The Petitioner relied on different provisions of Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board Act, 2018 to emphasize that no independent powers were given to CEO/Petitioner.
However, the respondent relied on Supreme Court decision in State of Telangana vs. Sri Managipet @ Managipet Sargveshwar Reddy (2019).to state that it is not mandatory to conduct a preliminary investigation before registering an FIR unless it was necessary to make out a prima facie case
Justice D. Ramesh quashed the FIR placing reliance on State of Haryana v. Bhajan Lal (1992) as the face value of allegations made in FIR were baseless and the evidence collected in support of the same did not make out any offence. It held that preliminary enquiry should have been conducted before registering the FIR to make out a prima facie case in respect of the information received.