The judgment establishes the principle that for F.I.R. quashing under Section 482 Cr.P.C., occurrences must be part of the same transaction, considering factors such as place, time, and manner of occurrence.

JUDGMENT :

1. Heard the parties.

2. This criminal miscellaneous petition has been filed invoking the jurisdiction of this Court under Section 482 Cr.P.C. with a prayer for quashing the F.I.R. being Sindri P.S. Case No. 92 of 2022 registered under Section 147, 148, 149, 341, 323, 307, 353, 332, 333, 337, 393, 448, 427, 506, 120B of the Indian Penal Code and under Section 27 of the Arms Act.

3. The brief facts of the case is that on 25.08.2022, Police Inspector-cum-Officer-in-Charge of Sindri Police Station got an information that an unlawful assembly has been formed by the accused persons of the case, being armed with deadly weapons. The Officer-in-Charge along with the police personnel at about 1:30 P.M. stopped the members of the unlawful assembly who were out to kill Lakhi Singh and to kill the police personnel who protect Lakhi Singh. The members of the unlawful assembly entered inside the office of Janta Mazdoor Sangh of Lakhi Singh and vandalized the same. On attempt being made by police to prohibit them, the members of the unlawful assembly resorted to brick pelting and caused murderous assault upon the police personnel. They also fired upon the police party from firearms and also vandalized the vehicles parked in front of the house of Lakhi Singh. The members of the unlawful assembly assaulted Assistant Sub Inspector of police –Ashok Kumar Singh and also pushed the informant causing injury and they also assaulted Sub Inspector of Police –Abhay Kumar and the petitioner was also a member of the said unlawful assembly.

4. It is submitted by the learned counsel for the petitioner that for the selfsame occurrence, police firstly lodged Baliapur P.S. Case No. 143 of 2022 and subsequently Sindri P.S. Case No. 92 of 2022 has been instituted. Hence, it is submitted that the F.I.R. of Sindri P.S. Case No. 92 of 2022 is hit by Section 162 of Cr.P.C. In support of his case, the learned counsel for the petitioner relied upon the Judgment of T.T. Antony Vs. State of Kerala & Ors., reported in 2001 AIR SC 2637, para -20, 21 & 28 of which reads as under:-

“20.From the above discussion it follows that under the scheme of the provisions of Sections 154, 155, 156, 157, 162, 169, 170 and 173 of Cr.P.C. only the earliest or the first information in regard to the commission of a cognizable offence satisfied the requirements of Section 154 Cr.P.C. Thus there can be no second FIR and consequently there can be no fresh investigation on receipt of every subsequent information in respect of the same cognizable offence or the same occurrence or incident giving rise to one or more cognizable offences. On receipt of information about a cognizable offence or an incident giving rise to a cognizable offence or offences and on entering the FIR in the station house diary, the officer-in-charge of a Police Station has to investigate not merely the cognizable offence reported in the FIR but also other connected offences found to have been committed in the course of the same transaction or the same occurrence and file one or more reports as provided in Section 173 of the Cr.P.C.

21. The learned Solicitor General relied on the judgment of this Court in Ram Lal Narang and others v. State (Delhi Administration), 1979 (2) SCC 322 : (AIR 1979 SC 1791 : 1979 Cri LJ 1346) (referred to as Narangs case) to contend that there can be a second FIR in respect of the same subject matter. In that case the contention urged by the appellant was that the police had committed illegality, acted without jurisdiction in investigating into the second case and the Delhi Court acted illegally in taking cognizance of that (the second) case. A reference to the facts of that case would be interesting. Two precious antique pillars of sand stone were deposited in the Court of Ilaqa Magistrate, Karnal, as stolen property. One N.N. Malik filed an application before the Magistrate seeking custody of the pillars to make in detail study on the pretext that he was a research scholar. It appears tha