RANCHI, India, Aug. 13 -- Jharkhand High Court issued the following order on July 14:
1. Heard the parties.
2. This criminal miscellaneous petition has been filed invoking the jurisdiction of this Court under Section 528 of BNSS, 2023 with a prayer for quashing and setting aside the order dated 14.05.2025 passed in S.T. case no. 147 of 1989, passed by learned Additional Sessions Judge -II, Palamau at Daltonganj whereby learned Additional Sessions Judge -II, Palamau at Daltonganj has observed that the attempts made by the petitioner is nothing but measure to hoodwink the said court and also observed that the petitioner has manipulated the letter dated 02.02.2025 by endorsing the seal of the P.S. Cyber Commissionerate without any date endorsed thereon along with the purported signatures of its receipt by the said Commissionerate. In this case, further prayer has also been made to quash the order dated 16.06.2025 passed in the said case, by learned Additional Sessions Judge -II, Palamau at Daltonganj whereby and whereunder, learned court below has passed a direction to stop the salary of the petitioner until further order.
3. The brief fact of the case is that the petitioner is the Superintendent of Police, Palamau. The accused persons of S.T. case no. 147 of 1989 namely Kundan Pandey and Rabin @ Rabindra Pandey were convicted in the said Sessions Trial case under Section 302 / 34 and 307/ 34 of IPC. It appears that convicts filed Cr. Appeal (D.B.) no. 191 of 1990 in this Court but vide judgment dated 19.12.2011 , the said appeal was dismissed and the conviction of the said two convicts were confirmed. The convicts then approached the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India vide SLP (Crl.) No. 3888 of 2013 and same was also dismissed vide order dated 01.03.2013. It appears that earlier in the said case, vide order dated 15.04.2024, the salary of the petitioner was ordered to be stopped till further notice by the predecessor judge, who was presiding over the court of learned Additional Sessions Judge -II, Palamau at Daltonganj and thereafter convict Rabin @ Rabindra Pandey was nabbed and was produced before the court by the Sub -Inspector of Police. The petitioner made an assurance by her letter dated 20.04.2024 that she would produce the absconding convict Kundan Pandey before the court without taking exception as expeditiously as possible. On the basis of the said assurance, the salary was directed to be released by the then learned Additional Sessions Judge -II, Palamau at Daltonganj vide order dated 23.04.2024. Thereafter, the D.O. letter dated 26.06.2024 was sent to the Superintendent of Police, Palamau by the learned Additional Sessions Judge -II, Palamau at Daltonganj and after that, a notice was sent to her, calling upon her to remain personally present in the court on 14.05.2025 along with the execution report of the process issued against the absconding convict -Kundan Pandey under Section 82/83 of CrPC and the permanent warrant of arrest was issued against the absconding convict -Kundan Pandey. The Superintendent of Police, Palamau directed the SHO, P.S. Manatu to submit the reports as was called for by the learned Additional Sessions Judge -II, Palamau at Daltonganj. On 14.05.2025, the In-charge, Officer-in-charge of Manatu P.S., and the Officer-in-charge of Tarhasi P.S., which Officer-in-charges have wrongly been described as the SHO in the impugned, appeared before the learned Additional Sessions Judge -II, Palamau at Daltonganj, along with the letter bearing no. 418 of 2025 dated 14.05.2025. The letter was accompanied with the certificate issued by the village head of Gram Panchayat Arka, Tarhasi, District- Palamau and the letter dated 02.02.2025 to show the efforts that were taken by the Tarhasi P.S. to arrest the absconding convict - Kundan Pandey.
*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://hcservices.ecourts.gov.in/ecourtindiaHC/cases/display_pdf.php?filename=A9S7c5LDIsB6RXaCf816x9S6reoZqlIKAuPy1zTFD3zhXdajWTH%2FXrOAKQWT%2BFGi&caseno=Cr.M.P./1604/2025&cCode=1&cino=JHHC010222832025&state_code=7&appFlag=)
Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.
