JUDGMENT

Hon'ble Lok Pal Singh, J. (Oral)

Present criminal misc. application under Section 482 of Cr.P.C. has been filed by the applicant seeking following relief:-

“direct the Registrar General of this Hon'ble Court to return the passport of the applicant to him, which was deposited by the applicant in terms of the order dated 29/07/2011 passed by this Hon'ble Court in WPCRL No.632 of 2011."

2. Briefly stated the facts of the case are that on 29.04.2011 some representation was made by Shri Acharya Pramod Krishnam of Haridwar addressed to the Hon'ble President of India alleging therein that the petitioner is not an Indian Citizen rather he is a citizen of Nepal and has surreptitiously obtained an Indian passport while living at Haridwar with the help of forged documents. The representation was forwarded to the office of the Department of Personal and Training, which in turn was forwarded to the Central Bureau of Investigation; however, no directions were issued by the Government of India to lodge the FIR and to investigate the matter against the present applicant. Representation made by Shri Acharya Pramod Krishnam came in the office of the Central Bureau of Investigation. C.B.I. lodged a criminal complaint against the applicant which was registered as FIR No.RC0072011S0008 on 24.07.2011 under Sections 120-B, 420, 468, 471 IPC and under Section 12 of the Passport Act, 1967 for criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery of valuable security, forgery for the purpose of cheating, using forged documents as genuine and false information or suppression of material facts for obtaining an Indian passport.

3. Against lodging of the FIR, by C.B.I., the applicant was constrained to file the Writ Petition No.632 of 2011 “Acharya Bal Krishna Vs. C.B.I. & another, for quashing the FIR lodged by the C.B.I. and seeking interim protection that the C.B.I. may not arrest the petitioner in connection with the aforesaid FIR.

4. This Court vide order dated 29.07.2011 granted an interim protection in favour of the applicant that the respondents shall not arrest the applicant during the investigation. While granting the interim protection to the applicant, this Court has passed the following order:-

“In the light of the aforesaid, the Court hereby directs the respondents not to arrest the petitioner during the investigation. The petitioner is directed to appear before the C.B.I. Office at Dehradun on 3rd August, 2011 at 11:00 a.m. and cooperate in the investigation. It is further directed that during the investigation, the petitioner will not leave India and that he will deposit his passport before the Registrar General of this Court on or before 5th August, 2011.

Certified copy of the order shall be made available to the parties within 24 hrs. on payment of usual charges.

Registry is directed to place a copy of this order before the Registrar General for necessary information and action."

5. Pursuant to the order dated 29.07.2011 the applicant submitted his passport before the Registrar General of this Court. The C.B.I. after completion of investigation submitted the charge-sheet on 10.07.2012.

6. On receipt of the charge-sheet, the C.B.I. issued summons to the applicant to surrender before the Special Judge, C.B.I. and on his surrender, he was sent to judicial custody. A bail application No.951 of 2012, Acharya BalKrishna Vs. State through C.B.I., was preferred before this Court. This Court vide order dated 16.08.2012 has been pleased to allow the bail application and the applicant was enlarged on bail on executing a personal bond and furnishing two sureties each of like amount to the satisfaction of the Magistrate concerned. It was further ordered that any observation made by this Court touching the merits of the case is only tentative and would not be relied upon by any of the parties, nor the Trial Court would be influenced by such observations.

7. The learned Magistrate, C.B.I. framed the charges under Sections 420, 468, 471 and 120B IPC and Section