By the Court.—Heard Dr. D.K. Tiwari, learned counsel for the petitioner, Sri Swetashwa Agarwal, learned counsel for respondent No. 5 and the learned AGA for the State authorities.

2. Petitioner before this Court is the victim and the first informant in Case Crime No. 56 of 2013, under Sections 498-A, 323, 504 IPC and 3/4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act, P.S. Kotwali, District Fatehpur. She is aggrieved by the order of the State Government dated 12.3.2014 as communicated under the letter of the Senior Superintendent of Police, Fatehpur to the Senior Superintendent of Police, Lucknow vide letter dated 1st April 2014, annexure 5 to the writ petition. By means of the order impugned it has been informed that the State Government on an application made by Ram Krishna Srivastava, one of the accused in the said case crime, has decided vide order dated 12.3.2014 to transfer the investigation from district Fatehpur to district Lucknow and the investigation be got done through a Circle Officer. The Senior Superintendent of Police, Lucknow it has been requested to do the needful.

3. Challenging the order, learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that order of transfer of investigation in the facts of the case is an abuse of the powers by the State Government. The person who sought transfer, (respondent No. 5 herein) had filed Criminal Writ Petition No. 2803 of 2013 for quashing of the First Information Report. The High Court while entertaining the said petition directed the petitioner to appear before the the Police Station for mediation within twenty days and in case no result comes out of mediation the petitioner (respondent No. 5) was required to surrender and apply for bail within thirty days.

4. It is stated that no mediation could take place and without complying with the remaining directions issued by the Court qua surrender, the respondent No. 5 made an application for transfer of the investigation to district Lucknow. On the said application, the Senior Superintendent of Police, Fatehpur transferred the case for investigation to the Circle Officer, Zafarganj district Fatehpur vide order dated 25.5.2013. The investigation was completed by the Circle Officer, Zafarganj and a charge-sheet was prepared for being submitted before the Court concerned. At this stage, respondent No. 5 made another application before the Secretary, Home, U.P. Government for transfer of the investigation to the Lucknow jurisdiction and in pursuance thereof, the impugned order has been made.

5. The Court while entertaining the present Writ Petition on 18.4.2014 required the Secretary, Home to disclose the reason on which it was decided to transfer the investigation on a mere application made by one of the accused in the case crime.

6. From a perusal of the affidavit filed by the Secretary, Home we find that absolutely no records/materials has been disclosed to be available with the State Government at the time of making of the order of transfer. The affidavit refers the letter dated 23.1.2014 of the Superintendent of Police, Lucknow and to a letter of the Circle Officer (Traffic (Western), Lucknow). Admittedly, these letters have been written subsequent to the making of the order of transfer. Therefore, there letter could not have been the basis for the order of transfer dated 12.3.2014.

7. It is, therefore, writ large record that on the date the order of transfer was made by the State Government, there was only an application of one of the accused i.e. respondent No. 5. The order of transfer had been made without calling for any report and without having any instructions in respect to the order of the High Court and its compliance, referred to above, as also of the status of the investigation in terms thereof.

8. We may only record that despite specific query being made to the learned Government Advocate and the battery of the learned AGAs, who are present in the Court, none could inform the Court as to what Government orders apply in matter of ex