Statutory provision requires only two prior registered FIRs, cognizance taken is sufficient to invoke organized crime laws without needing prior convictions.

ORDER :

J. C. Doshi, J.

1. By way of this petition, the petitioner has prayed for the following reliefs:-

“(A) This Hon'ble Court may kindly be pleased to admit and allow the present petition;

(B) This Hon'ble Court may kindly be pleased to quash the impugned FIR dated 16.07.2018 registered vide C.R. No. I -159/2018 for the offences alleged to have been committed and punishable under sections 143, 147, 452, 323, 506 and 294(b) of IPC read with sections 3(1)(r), 3(1)(s) and 3(2)(va) of The Schedule Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 with Manjalpur Police Station, District: Vadodara City and all consequent proceedings arising there from against the petitioners in the interest of justice;

(C) Pending admission, hearing and final disposal of the present petition, this Hon'ble Court may kindly be pleased to stay the investigation or further proceedings in FIR dated 16.07.2018 registered vide C.R. No. I - 159/2018 for the offences alleged to have been committed and punishable under sections 143, 147, 452, 323, 506 and 294(b) of IPC read with sections 3(1)(r), 3(1)(s) and 3(2)(va) of The Schedule Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 with Manjalpur Police Station, District: Vadodara City against the petitioners in the interest of justice;

(D) Ad-interim relief in terms of para 8(C) may kindly be granted;”

2. Learned advocate for the petitioner has, at the very outset, submitted that an indispensable precondition for invoking the provisions of the GUJCTOC Act is the existence of at least two prior offences registered against the petitioner on earlier occasions. Drawing the attention of this Court to the record, it has been pointed out that the first offence was registered vide C.R. No. I-163 of 2014 for the offences punishable under Sections 325, 114 and 188 of the Indian Penal Code. Another case, being C.C. No. 68239 of 2015, was instituted, but the same came to be disposed of by the learned trial Court on 28.11.2016, culminating in an order of acquittal.

2.1. It is further urged that the second offence was registered with Chowk Bazar Police Station, Surat City, being C.R. No. I-181 of 2014, for the offences punishable under Sections 307 and 397 of the Indian Penal Code read with Section 135 of the Gujarat Police Act. In such circumstances, it is the emphatic contention of the learned advocate for the petitioner that the essential statutory requirements for registration of the impugned FIR under the GUJCTOC Act remain unfulfilled. Ergo, the very initiation of proceedings against the petitioner is not only vitiated by lack of legal substratum but also constitutes a malicious prosecution and an abuse of the process of law.

2.2. It is further submitted that perusing of definition unlawful activity organized crime syndicate defined under Section 2 of the GUJCTOC as well as considering the provisions of Section 3 of the GUJCTOC filing of the FIR is totally malicious Act. Petitioner is not a part of the organized crime sydicate and has never continued the unlawful activity. In the aforesaid circumstance, learned advocate for the petitioner submitted to allow the petition.

3. Per contra, the learned APP, while adverting to the Statement of Objects and Reasons of the GUJCTOC Act, submitted that the legislation w