JUDGMENT

Dr. Mukundakam Sharma, J.—

1. Leave granted.

2. This appeal arises out of the final order dated 3.8.2006 passed by the High Court of Allahabad at Allahabad in Criminal Misc. Writ Petitions Nos. 8967, 10514 and 7227 of 2004 whereby the above three separate writ petitions filed by the appellants herein were dismissed. In the said writ petitions the appellants herein challenged the FIR registered against them under Sections 420 and 409 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (in short ‘IPC’) and under Sections 64 and 69 of the Indian Stamp Act, 1899 (in short ‘Stamp Act’).

3. Brief facts necessary for the purpose of disposal of present appeal are as follows:

Appellants herein were working as officers in different capacities at relevant point of time in the Life Insurance Corporation of India (in short ‘LIC’) and were then posted in different offices in the State of Uttar Pradesh. All the three appellants have since retired from the service of the LIC.

4. It has been stated that various branch offices of the LIC in the course of their business have to purchase large quantity of adhesive stamps for affixation on their policies and for issuing receipts etc. While the stamps used for rece