IN THE HIGH COURT OF MADHYA PRADESH AT JABALPUR BEFORE HON'BLE SHRI JUSTICE VISHAL MISHRA

rd

ON THE 23 OF SEPTEMBER, 2025 WRIT PETITION No. 37359 of 2025 SUMIT VYAS Versus THE STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH AND OTHERS Appearance:

Dr. Anuvad Shrivastava - Advocate for the petitioner.

Shri A. S. Baghel - Government Advocate for the respondents/ State.

ORDER The present petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India has been filed by the petitioner seeking quashment of charge sheet filed against the petitioner arising out of the Crime No.384/2025 registered under Section 3 /4 of the Public Gambling Act, 1867 at Police Station Patan, District Jabalpur, as well as proceedings pending in the court below.

2. Briefly stated, the facts giving rise to the present petition are that the petitioner is resident of Patan, District Jabalpur and Kingsway Hotel situated at Jabalpur Patan road is owned and managed by the Manager Vivek Yadav. On 26.07.2025 a police raid was made in the hotel and it was found that in room no. 203 some persons were playing game of gambling, on account of which, an FIR at Crime No. 384/2025 is registered.

3. It is submitted by the counsel appearing for the petitioner that he was neither present nor aware about any such gambling in the aforesaid hotel but the respondent Police has implicated the petitioner as an accused in the aforesaid case without investigating the involvement of the petitioner in the matter and charge sheet has been filed. The SDO (P) Patan is having no authority to issue search warrant and therefore, the search made under such warrant is illegal in terms of Section 5 of the Public Gambling Act, 1867. The petitioner is not at all concerned with the alleged offence and he has been falsely implicated by the police authority without any basis. There is no evidence in the whole charge sheet that the petitioner had used the premises for Gambling. On these grounds, he has prayed that the charge sheet filed against the petitioner be quashed.

4. Per contra, learned counsel for the State has vehemently opposed the contentions stating that there are sufficient material available in the FIR so as to suggest that the petitioner is prima facie involved in the alleged offence. The police, after investigation, has filed the charge sheet in the matter and the proceedings are pending before the JMFC, Patan, District Jabalpur. Hence, prayer for dismissal of the petition is made.

5. Heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the material available on record.

6. On perusal of the record as well as the statements of the witnesses, it is found that there are prima facie evidence against the petitioner connecting him with the alleged offence. Vivek Yadav, who is said to be the Manager of the Kingsway Hotel, has stated that the hotel is registered in the name of Rajkishore Vyas and the management of the hotel is done by Sumit Vyas i.e. the petitioner. He specifically stated that the room is booked by him on the instructions of the petitioner. The statement of the witness Vivek Yadav is corroborated by the statements of the other witnesses.

7. On perusal of the record, it is found that prima facie there are sufficient material available against the petitioner. Therefore, it cannot be said that the petitioner has been falsely implicated in the case and the charge sheet has been filed.

8. The law with respect to quashment of an FIR is settled by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in large number of cases. The Hon'ble Supreme Court in a landmark judgment in the case of State of Haryana vs Bhajanlal reported in 1992 Supp (1) SCC 335 has laid down certain guidelines which were subsequently reiterated by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in a judgment passed in the case of Neeharika Infrastructure (P) Ltd. vs State of Maharashtra reported in (2021) 19 SCC 401 especially in paragraph 33, certain guidelines have been framed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court which read as follows :

"33. In view of the above and for the reasons stated above, our final con