The main legal point established in the judgment is that the absence of criminal intent or criminal acts, lack of evidence, and lack of prosecution against senior government officials led to the quashing of the proceedings.

ORDER

1. Leave granted.

2. These appeals are filed against the Judgment dated 06.04.2017 in CRL.MMO No. 285/2015 etc. by the High Court of Himachal Pradesh. The CRL.MMOs were filed by the appellants herein under section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 ("CrPC") seeking quashing of proceedings arising out of FIR No. 14 of 2013 dated 03.10.2013 registered under Section 447 read with Section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code ("IPC"), Section 3 of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984 and section 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 ("PC Act"). This FIR is sequel to the earlier FIR No. 12 of 2013 dated 01.08.2013 registered under Sections 406, 420, 120-B of the IPC and Section 13(2) of the PC Act against the appellants herein. In respect of that FIR also the appellants had filed petitions under section 482 of the CrPC, 1973 which were dismissed by the High Court vide Judgment dated 25.04.2014. That judgment was the subject matter of Criminal Appeal Nos. 1258-1259 of 2018 etc. and vide Judgment dated 2.11.2018 this Court has quashed the proceedings arising out of the said FIR.

3. Facts of the case are stated in detail in the said judgment and our detailed reasoning is given for quashing that FIR. Therefore, it is not necessary to state the facts as well as contentions in detail. In fact, while narrating the sequence of events, facts pertaining to the instant FIR have also been taken note of. We may, therefore, recapitulate in brief that the subject matter of FIR No. 12 of 2013 dated 01.08.2013 was allotment of land to appellant No. 1 for the purpose of constructing cricket stadium at Dharamshala. A Lease Deed dated 29.07.2002 was executed between appellant No. 1 and respondent No. 1 through Director, Himachal Pradesh Youth Services and Sports Department for this purpose. It was proposed to host international cricket matches at Dharamshala. At their request, the International Cricket Council ("ICC") inspected the cricket infrastructure being developed at Dharmshala by appellant No. 1. The ICC observed that though the cricket stadium had potential to become stadium of international standard, there was a necessity to improve the quality of accommodation and to add more facilities. Need for hostel accommodation for desired quality was also stressed. Keeping in view this Report of the ICC, the appellants had made request, inter alia, for allotment of further land including area of 720 square metres (which is the subject matter of FIR No. 14 of 2013) abutting the stadium. This area was in the occupation of Education Department and there was residential hostel accommodation thereupon. Allegation in the chargesheet is that the said residential hostel was demolished illegally by the officials of appellant No. 1 in connivance with the other Government Officials and given to appellant No. 1 on which it had made its construction after the said demolition. The chargesheet discusses the role of various officials including Shri K.K. Pant, Deputy Commissioner, Kangra (an IAS Officer), Shri Mohinder Singh Katoch, S.D.O., H.P. P.W.D. Division, Dharamshala, Shri Devi Chand Chauhan, Xen. H.P. P.W.D., Dharamshala, Shri Lalit Mohan Sharma, Principal, Government College, Dharamshala w.e.f August 2006 to July, 2008 and Shri Narender Awasthi, Principal, Government College, Dharamshala from July, 2008 to February, 2010 as well as the appellants herein. There are few other officials named as well.

4. The chargesheet also records that meetings were held in this behalf which were chaired by the Deputy Commissioner, Kangra, Shri K.K. Pant. It was found that the building was in a very dilapidated condition and the accommodation was also posing security threat to the cricketers playing inside the cricket stadium. After detail discussion the following decisions were taken:

"1. The Principal government college, Dharamshala will move an application to the Executive Engineer, PWD, Dharamshala for assessing durability of the building