REPORTABLE

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION

CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 1541 OF 2018 (Arising out of S.L.P.(Crl.) No. 9401 of 2018)

Omveer Singh            ….Appellant(s)

VERSUS

State of Uttar Pradesh & Anr.    ….Respondent(s)   

J U D G M E N T

Abhay Manohar Sapre, J.

1. Leave granted.

2. This appeal is filed against the final judgment

and order dated 13.09.2018  passed by the  High

Court of Judicature at Allahabad in an Application

filed under Section 482 of the  Code of  Criminal

Procedure, 1973 (hereinafter referred to as “the

Code”) bearing No.36284 of 2017 whereby the

1

Single Judge dismissed the application filed by the

appellant herein.

3. Few facts need mention hereinbelow to

appreciate the short controversy involved in this

appeal.

4. By impugned order, the Single Judge

dismissed the appellant’s application filed under

Section 482 of the Code wherein the challenge was

to  quash  the  order  dated 21/09/2017 as  well  as

entire  proceedings in  Complaint  Case  No.2540  of

2017 (Mamta  vs.  Jagdish  Prasad  &  Ors.) under

Sections 498A, 323, 376 of the Indian Penal Code,

1860 (hereinafter referred to as “IPC”) and Sections

3 and 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 Police

Station Mahila Thana, District Hathras pending in

the Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Hathras.  

5. The short question, which arises for

consideration  in this  appeal, is  whether the  High

2

Court was justified in dismissing the appellant’s

application filed under Section 482 of the Code.  

6. Heard Mr. Rakesh Taneja, learned counsel for

the  appellant and  Mr.  Chandra  Shekhar, learned

counsel for the respondents.  

7. Having heard the learned counsel for the

parties and on perusal of the record of the case we

are  inclined to set  aside the  impugned order  and

remand the case to the High Court for deciding the

appellant’s application, out of which this appeal

arises, afresh on merits in accordance with law.

8. On perusal of the impugned order, we find that

the Single Judge has quoted the principles of  law

laid down by this Court in several decisions relating

to powers of the High Court on the issue of

interference in cases filed under Section 482 of the

Code from Para 2 to the concluding para but has

3

not referred to the facts of the case to appreciate the

controversy of the case.  

9. We are, therefore, unable to know the factual

matrix of the case after reading the impugned

judgment except the legal principles  laid down by

this Court in several decisions.  

10. In our view,  the Single  Judge ought  to have

first set out the brief facts of the case with a view to

understand the factual matrix and then examined

the challenge made to the proceedings in the light of

the principles of law laid down by this Court with a

view to record the findings on the grounds urged by

the appellant as to whether any interference therein

is called for or not.  

11. We find that the aforementioned exercise was

not done by the High Court while passing the

impugned order.

4

12.  We, therefore, find ourselves unable to concur

with such disposal  of the application by the High

Court and feel  inclined to set aside the impugned

order and remand the case to the High Court (Single

Judge) with a request to decide the application

afresh on merits in accordance with law keeping in

view the aforementioned observations.

13. Having formed an opinion to remand the case

in the light of our reasoning mentioned above, we do

not consider it proper to go into the merits of the

case.

14. In view of the foregoing discussion, the appeal

succeeds    and  is  accordingly  allowed.  Impugned

5

order is set aside. The case is remanded to the High

Court for its decision on merits uninfluenced by any

of our observations in this order.   

  ………...................................J. [ABHAY MANOHAR SAPRE]

                                  …...……..................................J.                        [INDU MALHOTRA]

New Delhi; December 03, 2018  

6