Patna High Court: Birendra Kumar, J. allowed the application to quash the proceedings against the petitioner as it was an abuse of the process of the Court since no material evidence was found against him.
The petitioner was put to trial, for an offence under Section 7 of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 when an FIR was registered when a tractor carrying fertilizer was seized. The tractor was carrying 30 bags of Urea and 6 bags of DAP fertilizer. The driver of the tractor disclosed that for the last two years, they were purchasing fertilizer from the PDS shop of the petitioner.
The counsel for the petitioner, Vikash Sharma submitted that, no other form of evidence was produced to substantiate the involvement of the petitioner in the alleged occurrence. He further contended that neither the premise of the petitioner was searched nor stock register was checked in order to ascertain any lapses in the records and the actuals.
The Court held that the confession of a co-accused while in police custody could not be proven under Sections 25 and 26 of the Evidence Act, 1872. Hence, it could not be treated as evidence at any stage of the proceedings and such criminal prosecution would be an abuse of the process of the court.
In view of the above noted facts, the instant petition was allowed and the impugned order and subsequent proceedings against the petitioner stood quashed.[Jai Prakash Yadav v. State of Bihar, 2019 SCC OnLine Pat 1188, decided on 19-07-2019]
