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quashes tag, awards Rs 50K to man with only two cases
The has delivered a stern message to the Uttar Pradesh bureaucracy, ruling that a person cannot be declared a "" solely on the basis of two criminal cases. Justice Sandeep Jain quashed the proceedings against petitioner Abhishek Tyagi and awarded him Rs 50,000 in damages, warning that bureaucrats who continue to pass arbitrary orders under the will face punitive consequences.
Branding on Sparse Record
Tyagi was subjected to action under the Goondas Act based on two cases: Case Crime No. 326 of 2022 (under ) and Case Crime No. 174 of 2025 (under various sections of the ). On , the Additional Commissioner of Police, Ghaziabad, ordered Tyagi to reside at his permanent address and mark his attendance at the concerned police station every second and fourth Saturday for six months. His appeal to the Commissioner, Meerut Division, was dismissed on .
Precedents Establish Threshold
The court relied on a string of its own precedents—
,
,
,
, and
—all holding that
"one or two criminal cases against a person will not be sufficient to hold him that he is habitually involved in commission of such offences and he is a '
'."
The court noted that the three-year gap between the two cases against Tyagi further negated any inference of
.
In a scathing observation, the court stated:
"It is apparent that the Act of 1970 is being used as a
by the bureaucracy and the State which is contrary to the objects of the Act of 1970."
It lamented that despite consistent judicial pronouncements, officials continue to pass whimsical orders, causing unnecessary litigation and public suffering.
Damages and Warning
The court quashed the and directed the state to pay Tyagi Rs 50,000 within one month, recoverable from the salaries of the bureaucrats responsible. It warned:
"Time has come when a strong message is required to be sent to the bureaucracy to stop doing this or otherwise face
for
under the Act of 1970."
The order signals a shift from to against misuse of .
