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Bal Kumar Patel @ Raj Kumar vs State of U.P. (with connected appeals)

Not available · 2025 INSC 1378Decided 3 Dec 2025
Not available
Justice Sanjay Karol · Justice Nongmeikapam Kotiswar Singh

Background

The appellant, facing several old criminal cases (including under the Arms Act and IPC provisions relating to forgery and cheating, dating back to FIRs from 2007), sought to have the proceedings quashed by the Allahabad High Court under its inherent powers. The common ground across all the connected appeals was that the appellant is a sitting or former Member of Parliament/Legislative Assembly, and that the mandatory procedure laid down by the Supreme Court in Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay v. Union of India, requiring the State's application to withdraw prosecution against such public representatives to be placed before, and permitted by, the High Court, with reasons recorded: had not been followed. The High Court declined to exercise its Section 482 jurisdiction and refused to quash the proceedings.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court reaffirmed that under the Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay framework, any decision to withdraw a criminal prosecution against a sitting or former MP/MLA must go through a specific process: the Public Prosecutor's reasons for withdrawal, along with the case record, must be placed before the High Court, which must apply its judicial mind and pass a reasoned order granting or refusing permission. Since this mandatory procedural safeguard had admittedly not been followed in the appellant's case, the Court held that the High Court could not be faulted for declining to quash the proceedings on that basis, and it dismissed all the connected appeals. The Court expressly clarified that it had not examined the merits of the underlying criminal allegations, leaving every defence, including at the stage of discharge or trial, open to the appellant.

Lesson Learnt

Even sitting or former legislators cannot have criminal prosecutions against them withdrawn informally: any withdrawal requires the Public Prosecutor's reasoned application to go before the High Court for judicial scrutiny and a reasoned order, and skipping that safeguard means the case must continue to trial regardless of how old the FIR is.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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