2018 Supreme(Chh) 5
IN THE HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH AT BILASPUR
PRASHANT KUMAR MISHRA, J.
Ved Prakash Gupta @ Gudda S/o Rajendra Prasad Gupta - Applicant
Versus
State of Chhattisgarh - Respondent
MCRC No. 3957 of 2017
Decided On : 05-01-2018
For the Applicant :Shri Jitendra Gupta, Advocate
For the Respondent:Shri Adiraj Surana & Shri Sangarsh Pandey, Dy. Govt. Advocates
Headnote:
Criminal Procedure Code,1973 - Section 439 - Indian Penal Code,1860 - Sections 420, 467, 468, 471 & 120-B - Income Tax Act, 1961 - Section 139-AA - Grant of regular bail - Cheating and dishonesty - Bail applications - applicant stood surety in the Court of Special Judge, Durg by impersonating Neelkanth, S/o Sukul Das, resident of village Indavani, however, when the concerned Court sent the papers for verification, the concerned Tahsildar submitted a report that no such person in the name of Neelkanth resides at village Indavani. Thereafter, the Court Mohrir Constable Parsh Nath lodged a report against the applicant for offence punishable under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471 & 120-B of the Indian Penal Code. In the inquiry it was found that the applicant is working as an Advocates Clerk and has engaged himself in the fraudulent activity by standing surety by affixing his photograph in the property papers of other persons, one of which is Neelkanth, S/o Sukul Das – Held, Courts shall meticulously follow these directions and shall certify in the order sheet of the respective case that “the verification of papers has been done in accordance with the order passed by the High Court of Chhattisgarh in M.Cr.C No.3957 of 2017 (Ved Prakash Gupta @ Gudda v. State of Chhattisgarh - Registry is directed to forthwith circulate copy of this order to all the District & Session Judges of the State of Chhattisgarh, who shall further circulate the same to all the Judicial Officers within their respective jurisdictions. Copy of this order be also forwarded to all the Collectors-cum-District Magistrates and the Superintendent of Police of the State of Chhattisgarh, who shall further circulate the same to all the Station House Officers with in their respective jurisdictions - Ordered Accordingly
1. Albeit M.Cr.C. Nos.3957, 3959 and 4136 of 2017 were heard analogously on 22.11.2017, however, looking to the different nature of crime, facts, etc. these bail applications are being dealt with separately by passing individual orders.
2. The applicant has preferred this application filed under Section 439 of the Cr.P.C. for grant of regular bail as he is arrested in connection with crime No.51/2016 registered in Police Station Durg, District Durg, for offence punishable under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471 & 120-B of the Indian Penal Code.
3. The prosecution case, in brief, is that the applicant stood surety in the Court of Special Judge, Durg by impersonating Neelkanth, S/o Sukul Das, resident of village Indavani, however, when the concerned Court sent the papers for verification, the concerned Tahsildar submitted a report that no such person in the name of Neelkanth resides at village Indavani. Thereafter, the Court Mohrir Constable Parsh Nath lodged a report against the applicant for offence punishable under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471 & 120-B of the Indian Penal Code. In the inquiry it was found that the applicant is working as an Advocate's Clerk and has engaged himself in the fraudulent activity by standing surety by affixing his photograph in the property papers of other persons, one of which is Neelkanth, S/o Sukul Das.
4. In course of hearing, it was informed by the learned counsel appearing for the State that in almost every Court in the State forged sureties are produced to obtain bail on the basis of forged revenue papers or by impersonating the real surety. It is also argued that if this menace is not controlled and regulated it will attain enormous proportion, therefore, this Court must pass necessary orders directing trial Courts to ensure obtaining papers of identification at the time of approving surety documents for issuing release warrants.
5. At this juncture, it is pertinent to mention here that some other lawyers present in the Court did not dispute this position that the practice of submission of forged revenue documents and sureties is rampant in trial Courts.
6. In Binoy Viswam v. Union of India and others, (2017) 7 SCC 59 the Supreme Court was dealing with the challenge to the provisions contained in Section 139-AA of the Income Tax Act, 1961 providing for mandatory seeding of Aadhaar numbers in PAN database. The Court took note of the object of the provision directing mandatory seeding to observe that unearthing black money or checking money laundering is to be achieved to whatever extent possible. Various measures can be taken in this behalf. If one of the measures is introduction of Aadhaar into the tax regime, it cannot be denounced only because of the reason that the purpose would not be achieved fully. Such kind of menace, which his deep rooted, needs to be tackled by taking multiple actions and those actions may be initiated at the same time. Rationality of a particular measure cannot be challenged on the ground that it has no nexus with the objective to be achieved. Individual measure cannot be ridiculed.
7. Highlighting the objectives of Aadhaar, it was further observed that by making use of the technology, a method is sought to be devised, in the form of Aadhaar, whereby identity of a person is ascertained in a flawless manner without giving any leeway to any individual to resort to dubious practices of showing multiple identities or fictitious identities. That is why it is given the nomenclature ‘unique identity”.
8. Further highlighting the use of Aadhaar in detecting the crime, the Supreme Court observed in para 125.3 of the judgment rendered in Binoy Viswam (supra) that Aadhaar or UID, which has come to be known as the most advanced and sophisticated infrastructure, may facilitate law enforcement agencies to take care of problem of terrorism to some extent and may also be helpful in checking the crime and also help investigating agencies in cracking the crimes. No doubt, going by aforesai