Allahabad High Court Quashes FIR Against UP Electricity Officials, Rebukes CJM for Misuse of Power

The Allahabad High Court quashed an FIR lodged by CJM Banda against UP electricity officials, condemning the magistrate for acting beyond his office's dignity. The bench criticized CJM Bhagwan Das Gupta for unreasonable accusations to assert power, directing future judicial officers to seek district judge approval for accusations made in personal capacity.

Quashing an FIR lodged by the CJM, Banda against electricity department officials in Uttar Pradesh, the Allahabad High Court has said the act was unbecoming of a magistrate.

''The CJM, Banda virtually auctioned his chair, dignity and position by making false, motivated and purposive allegations in the FIR by misusing his powers. He cannot be permitted to enjoy his position as the CJM and behave and act as an ordinary litigant,'' the court said.

Allowing a writ petition filed by Manoj Kumar Gupta and two other officials of the state electricity department, a bench of Justices Rahul Chaturvedi and Mohammad Azhar Husain Idrisi observed that the chief judicial magistrate (CJM), Bhagwan Das Gupta, levelled ''wild and tailored'' allegations of fraud, cheating, fabrication of documents and extortion of money against the officials ''to teach a bitter lesson'' to them and make them ''understand the power and position of a CJM''.

In this backdrop, the court directed that in the future, if any judicial officer or judge wants to become the first informant in his personal capacity in an FIR, he must take the district judge concerned into confidence and only after obtaining the latter's assent can he become an informant in an FIR, except in a matter of grave and severe nature like murder, suicide, rape or other sexual offences, dowry death and dacoity.

While quashing the FIR, the bench directed the high court registrar general to keep a copy of the judgment in the service record of the CJM.

According to the facts of the case, the CJM had bought a house in Lucknow from one Vandana Pathak. When the CJM applied to change the electricity account to his name, he was informed by the SDO of the local electricity sub-station that there was an outstanding bill of Rs 1,66,916 on the existing connection.

The CJM filed a complaint before the additional civil judge in Lucknow in August 2013 against the previous owner of the house, her husband and several electricity department officials on fraud and other charges under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

However, when no substantial case was found against the electricity department officials, the matter was dropped. The CJM also unsuccessfully pursued his case before the district consumer forum in Lucknow and the Electricity Ombudsman.

In its decision dated May 21, the high court noted that when Das Gupta failed to attain his objective in Lucknow, he decided to ''cook up a fake story'' and by ''auctioning his chair and position as the CJM, Banda,'' managed to get the FIR lodged against the petitioners in Banda under section 420 (cheating) and other sections of the IPC.

The electricity department officials had challenged the FIR in the high court.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)