The Allahabad High Court has recently held that summoning orders issued to persons accused of offenses under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 can be challenged under Section 482 of the CrPC. Under Section 482 of Criminal Procedure Code, the court has the right to decide on the validity of the summons issued under the SC/ ST(Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The court was hearing a case in which the accused challenged the validity of the summoning order issued by the Special Judge SC/ST Act, Kanpur Dehat under Section 482 CrPC. The accused argued that the Special Judge had not exercised judicial discretion while issuing the summons.In the case, a Scheduled Caste woman lodged an FIR against the accused, in which the police did not add sections related to the SC/ST Act. So the woman applied to the court under section 156( 3 ) of CrPC. which the court accepted as a complaint case and proceeded with the application as a complaint case. The order for issue of summons was passed by the court after accepting the application u/s 156 (3) of CrPC as a complaint case. The accused challenged the validity of the summoning order saying that the order has been passed without the mandatory inquiry required under section 202 (1) CrPC. Judge has not used the slightest bit of mind while passing the order. The question of law in the case was whether the High Court can set aside the summoning order passed in SC ST Act Case by exercising its inherent powers on a petition under Section 482. Several decisions of the Supreme Court were cited by both the parties to resolve this question. Justice Rahul Chaturvedi's bench concluded in the light of the aforesaid decision that Criminal proceedings arising out of SC/ ST Act can be quashed by exercising inherent powers under section 482 of Criminal Procedure Code.Materially, the court considered the petition filed by the accused and concluded that no judicial wisdom was applied in the order issuing the summoning order passed by the Special Court, Kanpur Dehat. The court held that the summoning order was passed without mandatory inquiry as required under Section 202(1) CrPC, therefore the impugned summoning order was not maintainable in law. The court, while observing that the F.I.R. Parallel proceedings of the case are already going on through, Court quashes summoning order passed by Special Court Kanpur Dehat in exercise of inherent powers under Section 482 of CrPC.
