Granting relief to former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court dismissed a petition that alleged that Fadnavis and his associates had obtained pleadings from the office of the government pleader in an unauthorised manner. The petition filed by lawyer Satish Uke had sought an investigation into the matter.
Uke alleged that the copies were utilised by Fadnavis’ associates to file an intervention application. In spite of him registering a complaint, the police had refused to file an FIR, he said. He alleged that this was due to the political influence of Fadnavis. He then sought cognisance of his complaint since the alleged offences were under sections 378 and 379 (theft) of the Indian Penal Code.
The bench of Justice VM Deshpande and Justice Amit B Borkar observed that copies of documents in the judicial proceedings being used to file an intervention application did not by itself imply any dishonest intention in procuring the documents.
COURT’S OBSERVATIONS
The court went through the evidence and arguments put forth and concluded that Uke had failed to disclose any wrongful gain by the intervention applicant or wrongful loss to Uke or the government pleader’s officer. This would be necessary to prove the offence of theft.
The court added that the documents allegedly obtained from the office of the government pleader were used to file an application in the judicial proceedings only to vindicate his [Fadnavis’] stand in the writ petition.
“Merely because the intervention applicant has used the copies of the documents in the judicial proceedings, it cannot be said that the intervention applicant has removed the documents with ‘dishonest’ intention,” the bench said.
The court did not find it necessary to conduct an inquiry to ascertain whether a cognizable offence was disclosed or not.
Considering all the facts and circumstances in the case, the court concluded that the information in the complaint filed by the petitioner did not disclose any cognizable offence.
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Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/law/story/bombay-hc-dismisses-plea-theft-case-former-maharashtra-cm-fadnavis-1829456-2021-07-18
