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Punjab & Haryana High Court Monthly Digest: July 2023
Aiman J. Chishti
22 Aug 2023 8:32 AM IST
Nominal Index [Citations 118 - 135] Avdesh Kumar v.State of Punjab and others 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 118X v.State of Punjab 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 119Commissioner of Customs, Ludhiana Versus M/s Jindal Drugs Ltd. 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 120Ram Saran v. State of Haryana 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 121Pankaj Kumar @ Meenu Malhotra v. State of Punjab 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 122Mohammad Rahim Ashori and others v. State...
Nominal Index [Citations 118 - 135]
Avdesh Kumar v.State of Punjab and others 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 118
X v.State of Punjab 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 119
Commissioner of Customs, Ludhiana Versus M/s Jindal Drugs Ltd. 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 120
Ram Saran v. State of Haryana 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 121
Pankaj Kumar @ Meenu Malhotra v. State of Punjab 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 122
Mohammad Rahim Ashori and others v. State of Haryana 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 123
Rahul Kumar Tewary and others v. State of Punjab and another 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 124
Harpreet Singh @ Happy v. State of Punjab 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 125
Saptarshi Ray v. Municipal Corporation of Gurugram and others 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 126
Pushpa Devi v. State of Punjab and others 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 127
Sunita Dhawan & Anr. V. UOI 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 128
Surjeet Khanna v. State of Haryana and another 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 129
Gurjinder Singh @ Ginda v. State of Punjab 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 130
Arvind Kumar Sharma v. State of Punjab and others 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 131
Ram Baksh @ Ramu v. State of Punjab 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 132
Mohan Lal @ Mohan v. UOI and all connected matters 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 133
Gurmeet Singh v. State of Punjab 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 134
Pushpinder Kumar alias Pushpinder Singh alias Tinku v. State of Punjab 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 135
Reports
Case Title: Avdesh Kumar v.State of Punjab and others
Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 118
The Punjab & Haryana High Court has held that the application for release on parole cannot be rejected on the mere apprehension that the accused may indulge in the sale of contraband or cause a breach of peace.
“Mere apprehension of the petitioner indulging in sale of contraband or of causing breach of peace would not bring the case within the ambit of Section 6(2) of the Act (the Punjab Good Conduct Prisoners (Temporary Release) Act, 1962) so as to enable the competent authority to reject the application for temporary release on parole,” said the division bench of Justice B.S. Walia and Justice Lalit Batra.
2.Punjab & Haryana High Court Acquits Daughter Accused Of Killing Father In 2003
Case Title: X v. State of Punjab
Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 119
Observing that the trial court seems to have unwittingly been "swayed by sentiment and prejudice" against the crime of patricide alleged against her, the Punjab & Haryana High Court set aside the conviction of a woman who was accused of murdering her father in 2003. The accused was 16 years and 4 months old at the time of incident
“There are suspicious features appearing in the evidence which cast doubt on their (prosecution) version. The pieces of evidence on which the prosecution chose to rest its case were so fragile that they crumbled when this Court subjected them to close and critical examination, whereby the whole super-structure collapsed. It is not the conviction of the Court of a fact, that an accused person has committed a crime, but the satisfactory evidence of it on record that an offence is proved,” said Justice Aman Chaudhary.
Case Title: Commissioner of Customs, Ludhiana Versus M/s Jindal Drugs Ltd.
Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 120
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has held that once the export obligation is discharged, the customs department cannot initiate proceedings against the assessee.
The bench of Justice Ritu Behari and Justice Manisha Batra observed that 50 MT of Coco Butter was lost during transit from the port to the factory, and this information was given to the department. But the lost quantity had been replaced by the respondent by purchasing the Cocoa Paste from the local market to fulfill its export obligation. The respondent-assessee did not claim any rebate or drawback in respect of the locally procured Coco Butter. The advance authorization has been discharged by DGFT (the licensing authority) as the export obligation has been fulfilled by the respondent.
Case Title: Ram Saran v. State of Haryana
Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 121
Observing that he has faced the agony of a protracted trial for such a long time, the Punjab & Haryana High Court has reduced the sentence of the 70-year-old convict to the period already undergone by him. In the 1994 case, Ram Saran was convicted in 2007 under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954 for adulterating 'khoya'.
Justice Deepak Gupta said, “Offence was committed way back in December, 1994, i.e., more than 28 years back and this way, petitioner has faced agony of protracted trial for such a long time. Even if he remained bail during all this period except for a short period, the demon of his conviction was hanging on his head.”
Case Title: Pankaj Kumar @ Meenu Malhotra v. State of Punjab
Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 122
The Punjab and Haryana High Court granted bail to Pankaj Kumar @ Meenu Malhotra, the alleged PA to former minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu. Kumar is one of the accused in the Food Grain Scam that took place during the minister's tenure in 2020-21.
He was booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, on allegations of receiving bribes through his conduits to compromise the tender for food procurement and transportation, as well as its quality and conditions.
6.Punjab & Haryana High Court Grants Regular Bail To Afghan Residents Who Overstayed Visa
Case Title: Mohammad Rahim Ashori and others v. State of Haryana
Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 123
Observing that the trial is progressing at a slow pace, the Punjab & Haryana High Court has granted bail to three Afghan residents who overstayed after the expiry of their visas and passports. The accused persons had already been in custody for over two years.
“It is not a case that the petitioners were indulging in any illegal activities or commission of crime and they are being prosecuted for over staying in India after expiry of their passport and visa,” said Justice Manoj Bajaj.
Case Title: Rahul Kumar Tewary and others v. State of Punjab and another
Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 124
The Punjab & Haryana High Court has quashed the FIR filed in 2019 against Colors TV and the actors and producers of the show 'Ram Siya Ke Luv Kush' for allegedly portraying a wrong image of Bhagwan Valmiki and hurting religious sentiments of the community.
The court took note of the order passed in October 2019, wherein the ban on the show was set aside after the producers provided the requisite undertaking to take “corrective measures.”
Case Title: Harpreet Singh @ Happy v. State of Punjab
Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 125
The Punjab & Haryana High Court has refused to grant regular bail to an Army personnel Harpreet Singh, who is accused of providing secret information and documents to a co-accused, who was apprehended allegedly with 70 grams of heroin in 2021.
The bench of Justice Manjari Nehru Kaul said, “Prima facie there are very grave, serious and specific allegations against the petitioner of having supplied critical information and photographs pertaining to various army installations to the co-accused who in turn supplied it to Pakistan for which they all received money.”
Case Title: Saptarshi Ray v. Municipal Corporation of Gurugram and others
Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 126
Appearance: Advocates Leena Sharma and Deep Inder Singh Walia, Advocate for the petitioner.
The Punjab & Haryana High Court has dismissed the plea challenging Gurgaon court's direction to remove stray dogs from the court premises within a period of 15 days from the date of passing of the order.
The bench of Justice Rajesh Bhardwaj said, “the petitioner has failed to show their locus standi in the absence of being a party to the said civil suit in which the impugned order has been passed.”
10.Punjab & Haryana High Court Directs State To Regularize Clerk After Over 30 Years Of Service
Case Title: Pushpa Devi v. State of Punjab and others
Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 127
The Punjab & Haryana High Court has directed the State to regularise the services of a clerk in the Water Supply and Sanitation Department, in accordance with a 2011 Punjab Government circular.
Under the circular, it was decided that services of daily wage or work charge employees with 10 years of service as of December 2006, can be considered for regularisation. However, the petitioner, who was initially appointed in November 1996, was denied the benefit as her service was not continuous due to her wrongful removal from service in 1997. She was later ordered to be reinstated by the Labour Court.
Case Title: Sunita Dhawan & Anr. V. UOI
Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 128
The Punjab & Haryana High Court has refused to grant anticipatory bail to two persons who are alleged to have been involved in manufacturing, sale and distributing hand sanitizer, which was found to be not of standard quality by a Government Analyst.
The bench of Justice Sandeep Moudgil said it is clear that the product was launched without proper testing only to earn huge profits during the time of crisis when people were scared due to onset of Covid-19 pandemic.
Case Title: Surjeet Khanna v. State of Haryana and another
Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 129
The Punjab & Haryana High Court has refused to quash the FIR lodged against a Faridabad school’s principal who allegedly failed to act on a student's complaints alleging homophobic bullying, leading him to commit suicide in 2022.
“The occurrence in question preceded the alleged homophobic and transphobic bullying by the peers of the deceased child. The email was sent by the complainant to the petitioner on 23.09.2021 and due to the inaction on the part of the petition, the child committed suicide on 24.02.2022. Thus, the petitioner cannot plead excuses for not reporting the matter to the police for nearly five months,” observed the bench of Justice Harnaresh Singh Gill.
Case Title: Gurjinder Singh @ Ginda v. State of Punjab
Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 130
The Punjab & Haryana High Court has acquitted a man convicted under Section 22(c) of the NDPS Act, on the ground that after examining the contraband, the chemical examiner at the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) failed to "re-enclose" it inside the cloth parcels and emboss the seals of the FSL on it.
Gurinder Singh was allegedly caught with 372 grams of heroin and convicted under Section 22(c) of the NDPS Act in 2019. He was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of ten years by Special Court, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, Punjab.
Case Title: Arvind Kumar Sharma v. State of Punjab and others
Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 131
The Punjab & Haryana High Court has directed the Punjab Police to provide security to Arvind Kumar Sharma, who claims to be a senior BJP leader and National President of Hindu Shakti Sangathan, in case he has "any genuine threat perception", on the condition that he will not attend any public functions like wedding or parties during such threat perception.
Sharma in the petition claimed to have received a threatening letter from Khalistan Liberation Force. While the State said Sharma is seeking security only to flaunt his profile, Justice Anoop Chitkara in the order said that in case he feels any genuine threat perception, he may approach the concerned Superintendent of Police who shall provide security to him on day to day basis.
Case Title: Ram Baksh @ Ramu v. State of Punjab
Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 132
The Punjab & Haryana High Court has granted bail to a man in a case alleging forgery of AAP MLA’s signature on sale deeds, on the ground that the mandatory requirement of giving notice before arrest under Section 41-A CrPC, as laid down in the Arnesh Kumar judgment, to the accused in cases where offences are punishable for seven years or less, was not complied with by the Police.
According to Section 41-A CrPC, the police officer shall, in all cases where the arrest of a person is not required under the provisions of sub-section (1) of section 41 issue a notice directing the person against whom a reasonable complaint has been made, or credible information has been received, or a reasonable suspicion exists that he has committed a cognizable offence, to appear before him or at such other place as may be specified in the notice.
Case Title: Mohan Lal @ Mohan v. UOI and all connected matters
Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 133
The Punjab & Haryana High Court has held that the bar for not issuing a passport will not apply to the person convicted of an offence for not less than 2 years, after the passing of 5 years of conviction, even if the appeal is pending.
“It is well known fact that conclusion of trial in India takes quite long time. Passing of 5 years period post-conviction, primarily though not absolutely, makes possibility of the applicant to flee from justice abysmally low,” said Justice Jagmohan Bansal.
Case Title: Gurmeet Singh v. State of Punjab
Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 134
The Punjab & Haryana High Court has rejected the pre-arrest bail plea of a man in a case related to the hacking of computers of a centre where online examinations for recruitment to various departments were conducted.
Justice Anoop Chitkara said the allegations against the petitioner and co-accused are grave and the evidence collected so far points to the petitioner’s involvement in the case.
Case Title: Pushpinder Kumar alias Pushpinder Singh alias Tinku v. State of Punjab
Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 135
The Punjab & Haryana High Court has directed a Punjab Police official, who got an FIR registered under under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act “without any basis”, to pay compensation of Rs.10,000 to the accused.
“Since the FIR has been got registered even before creating a basis for that, and due to the FIR, the petitioner has been put to the harassment and expenses, therefore, the person, who got the said FIR registered against the petitioner without any basis is directed to pay a compensation of Rs.10,000/- to the petitioner within a period of four weeks from today,” said the bench of Justice Rajbir Sehrawat.
The Punjab & Haryana High Court has issued notice on a plea seeking directions to Punjab Police to unblock a Twitter account being run by a lawyer. The plea also alleges that officials are operating the social media accounts of various police districts and commissionerates without any valid legal sanction.
Justice Vinod S. Bharadwaj issued the notice to the respondents and listed the matter for hearing on October 12.
