The inherent powers of the High Court under Section 482 CrPC should be exercised sparingly and only in exceptional circumstances to prevent abuse of process or secure the ends of justice.

Mansoor Ahmad Mir, Acting Chief Justice By the medium of this petition, the petitioners have invoked the jurisdiction of this Court in terms of Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (hereinafter referred to as “CrPC”) for quashing FIR No. 12 of 2013, dated 1st August, 2013, registered at Police Station Dharamshala, under Sections 406, 420, 120­B of the Indian Penal Code (hereinafter referred to as “IPC”) and Section 13 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (hereinafter referred to as “PC Act”), on the grounds taken in the memo of petition.

2. This petition came up for consideration before one of the Co­ordinate Benches of this Court on 7th January, 2014 and was deferred with the observation that the case be listed before another Bench subject to the orders of the Chief Justice. Thereafter, the petition came up for consideration before another Bench on 9th January, 2014 and was adjourned with liberty to make a mention before the learned Vacation Judge. On 24th January, 2014, the learned Vacation Judge asked the petitioners to seek appropriate orders from the Chief Justice qua listing being the pending matter. It appears that this order was questioned by the petitioners before the Apex Court and the Apex Court, after hearing the parties, passed the following order:

“The substance of the matters is that an application filed by the petitioners herein under Section 482 CrPC could not be heard by the High Court of Himachal Pradesh for various reasons including that two of the Hon ‘ble Judges declined to hear the matter. Therefore, there is a prayer in T.P. (Crl.) No. 42 of 2014 to transfer the Cr.MMO No. 6/2014 titled as “Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association & Anr. Vs. State ofHimachal Pradesh before the High Court of Himachal Pradesh. After hearing learned counsel for the parties, we deem it appropriate to request the Hon’ble Chief Justice of the High Court of Himachal Pradesh to take up the Cr.MMO No. 6/2014 himself and dispose of the same expeditiously. The parties are at liberty to mention the matter before the Hon’ble the Chief Justice of the High Court. In view of the above observations, the special leave petition and transfer petition stands disposed of. In view of the disposal of the special leave petition and transfer petition, no order is required to be passed by this court in I.A. No. 3971 /2014 in T.P. (Crl.) No. 42 of 2014 and CrlMPNo. 393 7/2014 in SLP (Crl.) No. 963/2014.”

3.In terms of the orders of the Apex Court, after hearing the parties, I was asked to hear the petition and no relief was granted in miscellaneous petitions. The matter came up before this Court on 4th March, 2014, the matter was partly heard with a direction to the respondents to file latest status of investigation, which was filed by the learned Advocate General. The matter was heard on 7th April, 2014, and was reserved for judgment.

4.The petitioners have questioned the lodging of FIR on the following grounds:

1.That it is purely a civil dispute outcome of civil liability and civil suit is pending in this Court.

2.That the petitioners have not violated any law, the leases were executed by the State in favour of the petitioners and the State is still the owner. And if the petitioners have acted in violation of the terms and conditions of the lease, that may be ground for cancellation of the lease(s) and not for lodging an FIR subjecting the petitioners and other persons to investigation and to face criminal trial.

3.That no mens rea is involved, thus, no criminal case is made out.

4.That the Cricket Association was ‘a not for profit society’ and was not converted into company with ulterior motives. Thus, thequestion of wrongful loss or wrongful gain does not arise at all.

5.That the entire case is politically motivated, based on Congress charge sheet, the investigation is monitored by the Chief Minister­respondent No. 2 and Special Investigation Team has been asked to submit the report to the Chief Minister­responden