The court established that the inherent jurisdiction under Section 482 Cr.P.C. does not permit the examination of mens rea at the stage of quashing charges, reserving such determinations for trial.

JUDGMENT

Pushpendra Singh Bhati, J. - In wake of second surge in the COVID-19 cases, abundant caution is being maintained, while hearing the matters in Court, for the safety of all concerned.

2. This criminal misc. petition under Section 482 Cr.P.C. has been preferred seeking quashing of the charge under Sections 420 & 120-B IPC and Section 78 of the Trade and Merchandise Marks Act, 1958 and its connected criminal proceedings pending in the Court of learned Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate No.1, Udaipur in Criminal Case No.434/2003.

3. Learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that the present petitioner is not responsible for the offence in question, because he was only acting, in relation to the usage of the trademark in question, as per the orders of main accused Nikunj Doshi, the proprietor of M/s. Alied Chemicals.

4. Learned counsel for the petitioner further submitted that the impugned FIR was submitted by one Dilip Karde, on behalf of the M/s. Henze India Private Limited, Mumbai, alleging therein that his Company was manufacturing Glucon-D and it was being designed and packed according to their trademark, which was registered.

5. Learned counsel for the petitioner also submitted that in the FIR, it has also been alleged that M/s. Alied Chemicals was selling a similar article by name of Glucose-D , which is contravention of the law. Learned counsel further submitted that the petitioner s name did not figure in the FIR, and it was only on the information of Nikunj Doshi that the petitioner was arrested on the ground that he prepared the packing boxes of the article, despite the fact that he did so only as per the orders of Nikunj Doshi himself.

6. Learned counsel for the petitioner also submitted that the petitioner ought not to have been arrayed as an accused in this case only on the information of the main accused, and more particularly, when the petitioner himself had admitted that he was preparing the boxes on the sole instructions of main accused Nikunj Doshi.

7. After hearing learned counsel for the parties as well as perusing the record of the case, this Court is of the opinion that nothing in the framing of charge or in the connected criminal proceedings warrant discharge of the present petitioner in this case at this stage. It is a separate thing that during course of the trial, the final fate of the petitioner shall be decided, without the learned court below getting prejudiced by this dismissal.

8. This Court is also of the opinion that the element of mens rea ought not be examined at this stage, under the inherent jurisdiction of Section 482 Cr.P.C.

9. Consequently, the present petition is dismissed. All pending applications also stand dismissed.