IMPORTANT POINTS
(1) Quashing of criminal proceedings – In exercise of extraordinary power under Article 226 of Constitution of India or inherent powers under Section 482 of Code, it is open to High Court to quash FIR either to prevent abuse of process of any Court or otherwise to secure ends of justice.
(2) Every trespass by itself is not criminal – To constitute criminal trespass prosecution has to allege that trespass was committed with one of intents enumerated in Section 441 IPC.

JUDGMENT :

MANMOHAN, J

1. Present appeals have been filed challenging the judgment and order dated 13th March, 2023 passed by the High Court of Jharkhand at Ranchi allowing the writ petitions filed by the Respondents herein and quashing the First Information Report (‘FIR’) being Deoghar Kunda P.S. Case No.169 of 2022 registered against the Respondents-accused persons for commission of alleged offences under Sections 336, 447 and 448 of Indian Penal Code, 1860 (‘IPC’) and Sections 10 and 11A of the Aircraft Act, 1934 holding that the FIR is vitiated by mala fides and allowing the proceedings to continue would amount to abuse of law. The High Court of Jharkhand at Ranchi while quashing the FIR has held as under:-

“26. In view of the above facts, reasons and analysis and considering that Aircraft took off after permission of the ATC, Aircraft Act, 1934 is itself complete code and there are procedure prescribed therein to lodge the complaint and of the enquiry, in view of the Act, the competent authority has not complained anything, even Airport Director has been made accused and even the two sons of the petitioner no. 1 has not been spared and considering that when the Special Act is there, Sections of Indian Penal Code are not attracted, petitioner no.1 and 4 in W.P.(Cr.) No. 448 of 2022 are Member of Parliament and petitioner no.1 is Chairman of the Airport Advisory Committee of Deoghar Airport and petitioner no.4 is also a member of the Standing Committee, Civil Aviation, further considering the materials on record which suggests that several cases have been lodged against the petitioner no.1 in W.P.(Cr.) No. 448 of 2022 which have been quashed by this Court and some judgments are affirmed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court, it transpires that F.I.R. has been lodged malafidely and allowing to continue the proceeding will amount the abuse of process of law, accordingly, the F.I.R. bearing Deoghar Kunda P.S. Case No. 169 of 2022 including the entire criminal proceeding registered under sections 336, 447 and 448 of the Indian Penal Code and section 10 and 11A of the Airport Act, 1934, pending in the Court of learned Sub Divisional Magistrate, Dumka, is hereby quashed.”

FACTS

2. The facts, as mentioned in the FIR, are that on 31st August, 2022 at 17:25 hours, the Respondents-accused persons boarded a chartered plane to travel from Deoghar Airport. After some time, the door of the plane opened and the pilot came down and moved towards the Air Traffic Control (‘ATC’) room as the Air Traffic Controller had denied permission for take-off. Learned counsel for Appellant- State of Jharkhand stated that the first informant who was Security-in-charge in Deoghar Airport followed the pilot and when he entered the ATC room, he saw that the pilot was creating pressure for giving Respondents-accused persons clearance for take-off at the earliest. Thereafter, the other Respondents-accused persons also barged into the ATC room and created pressure for the clearance to be given to them. According to the learned counsel for the Appellant-State of Jharkhand, pursuant to the pressure exerted by the Respondents-accused persons, the ATC clearance was given and the chartered flight took-off at 18:17 hours even when the sunset time on that day was 18:03 hours.

ARGUMENTS ON BEHALF OF APPELLANT-STATE OF JHARKHAND

3. Learned counsel for the Appellant-State of Jharkhand stated that the ATC room is a restricted area and the Respondents-accused persons forcefully trespassed and entered the ATC room which was a serious security breach and the Respondents-accused persons threatened the ATC officers and coerced them to give permission for take-off. He stated that the ATC had denied clearance/permission to chartered flight to take-off from Deoghar Airport due to low visibility and bad weather conditions. He pointed out that the Deoghar Airport does not have the facility of night operation. He stated that by forcefully obtaining the ATC clearance by threatening and creating pr