The main legal point established in the judgment is that the revisional jurisdiction should normally be exercised only on a question of law.

ORDER :

The accused has assailed the order dated 21.03.2016 by which his application under section 239 of the Code of Criminal Procedure seeking discharge in G.R Case No.5492 of 2012 has been dismissed, in part - the learned Magistrate has found that there is no material to frame charge against the accused under section 67 of Information Technology Act, 2000.

2. In the order dated 21.03.2016, the learned Judicial Magistrate, Ranchi has observed as under:

"In the present case cognizance of the offence has been taken u/s 66(A), 66(D) & 67 of Information Technology Act, 2000. So far as section 66(A) of the Act is concerned, in the case of "Shreya Singhal vs. Union of India" (2015) 5 SCC 1, the same has been declared ultra-vires. As such the accused can't be charged for the said offence.

Sec. 67 of the Act prescribes punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form. This is not the case of the prosecution that the accused had sent any obscene material in electronic form. As such the accused also can't be charged for offence u/s 67 of the Act.

Section 66(D) of the Act prescribes punishment for cheating by personation by using computer resource. From the judicial record it appears that the allegation is that the alleged e-mail was sent in the name of Mr. Manish Sinha. From perusals of the case diary it appears that the IP address from which the alleged e-mail was sent was created by using the mobile number of the accused. There is sufficient material available at para-19,23,24 of the case diary to frame charge against the accused named above.

In above view of the matter the accused above named is discharged u/s 66(A) & 67 of the Information Technology Act, 2000. However, as there is sufficient material available on record to frame charge u/s 66(D) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, the accused is directed to remain physically present in Court on 25.04.2016 for hearing the charge."

3. This is second round of litigation and in the last more than 7 years the trial has struck. Aggrieved of the order dated 03.04.2014 by which the discharge petition filed by him was rejected, the petitioner approached this Court in Criminal Revision No. 763 of 2014 and by an order dated 27.02.2015 the order refusing discharge petition of the petitioner was set aside and the matter was sent to the Court below to pass a reasoned and speaking order. This revision petition was filed on 21.04.2016 and by an order dated 25.04.2016 further proceeding in G.R. Case No.5492 of 2012 was stayed by a Co-ordinate Bench of this Court. Thereafter, the matter came on Board on 12.05.2016, 19.05.2016 and 04.07.2016 and the interim order was continued by the Court. It was on 06.08.2018 that the petitioner impleaded opposite party no.2 and thereafter he did not take any step for early hearing of this revision petition. On 15.02.2021, this criminal revision petition was listed before me for hearing. On that day, on the request of the learned counsel for the petitioner hearing of criminal revision petition was deferred for 26.02.2021.

4. Mr. Pravin Kumar, the learned counsel for the petitioner would submit that the materials collected during investigation do not connect the petitioner with the alleged crime and, moreover, the materials on record do not constitute the offence under section 66D of Information Technology Act, 2000. The learned counsel would further submit that the letter dated 06.12.2012 written by Inspector General of Police, CID has been taken as a gospel truth and the materials collected by the investigating officer which are recorded in case-diary particularly in paragraph nos.19,23 and 24 do not refer to any enquiry with regard to I.P address 10.63.173.36.

5. On 04.10.2012, a complaint was received by the officer-in-charge of Mesra PS from Dr. Vijay Nath and Dr. R.K. Lal. They have stated that an e-mail making false allegations about standards of VLSI workshop and competence of the teachers was sent on 17.08.2012 to Prof. S.K. Ghorai