The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday has stayed coercive action against the junior engineer, SDO and driver of the electricity department of Bhadohi in a case registered under the SC/ST Act. Along with this, a reply has been sought from the complainant and the government on his petition.
A single-judge bench of Justice Vivek Agarwal passed this order while hearing an Application U/S 482 filed by Madhav Kumar Dwivedi And 2 Others. In this application, the applicants’ contention is that applicants are aggrieved of the order dated March 26, 2021 passed by Special Judge under SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, summoning the applicants.
The facts of the case are that a case of power theft was registered against the husband of the complainant registering Case on January 21, 2020 at Police Station Bhadohi, under Section 135 of Electricity Act, 2003.
Being aggrieved of this, as a counterblast, a case has been registered against the applicants, who are respectively Junior Engineer, Sub Divisional Officer and Driver of the Electricity Distribution Division-2 Gyanpur, District Bhadohi.
Counsel for the applicant submitted that this is a direct case of vendetta wherein complainant has made wild allegations against the applicants and filed an application under Section 156(3) Cr.P.C.
Though initially she made an allegation of demand of bribe but no section under Prevention of Corruption Act has been invoked and no relief has been sought for registration of a case under the relevant provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act.
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It is further submitted that being aggrieved of the acts committed by the applicants in discharge of their official duty, no case is made out as has been mentioned by the Sub Inspector- Makhhan Lal of Police Station Gyanpur, Bhadohi in its communication to the court of Additional Sessions Judge, Bhadohi made on July 21, 2020, yet overlooking the police report, impugned summoning order has been passed which is arbitrary and illegal.
D.N. Joshi, Counsel for the respondent no.2, in his turn, submitted that applicants have been tortured with not only demand of money but also with casteists remarks.
“Taking note of all these facts, the application is admitted for final hearing. D.N. Joshi, may file his counter affidavit within two weeks. Let no coercive action be taken against the applicants till the next date of listing,”
-the court ordered.
The Court has fixed the next hearing of the petition on October 28.