Allahabad High Court: In an anticipatory bail application filed for offences under Sections 420, 406 of the Penal Code, 1860 (‘IPC’) during the pendency of trial, Krishan Pahal, J. while rejecting the anticipatory bail application plea, said that filing an anticipatory bail application, while there being a regular bail application pending, is misuse of process of the Court.
As per prosecution story, the applicant, who was the Supervisor in the company, along with other co-accused persons is stated to have usurped the money of several persons who had deposited their money in the company as policy bond.
The Court said that filing an anticipatory bail application, while there being a regular bail application pending, is misuse of process of Court. The applicant is used to filing multiple applications and petitions at various forums including the High Court. These acts are a classic example of forum shopping, and it cannot be permitted to keep on going so eternally.
The accused submitted that, he is not named in the FIR and his name has come up later during investigation, although it is referred in the FIR that an unknown Supervisor was also involved in the said crime
The State opposed the anticipatory bail application on the ground that the applicant had twice agitated the provisions of Section 482 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (CrPC) and once the provisions of Section 397 CrPC before this Court by filing criminal revision and failed in it, and subsequently, filed anticipatory bail application pending regular bail application filed in the court concerned.
After taking into consideration the rival contentions, the fact that accused had filed several petitions before this Court thrice and failed and there is pending regular bail application of the accused before the court concerned, the Court rejected the anticipatory bail plea of the accused.
[Banti Sharma v State of U.P, 2023 SCC OnLine All 2278, Order dated 01-11-2023]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
Counsel for Applicant:- Ravi Pandey
Counsel for Opposite Party:- Government Advocate
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