JAGAT SINGH AND 4 OTHERSversusSTATE OF U.P. AND ANOTHER

             HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD

                 APPLICATION U/S 528 BNSS No. - 6577 of 2026

Jagat Singh And 4 Others
                                                                .....Applicant(s)
                                   Versus
State of U.P. and Another
                                                           .....Opposite Party(s)

Counsel for Applicant(s)                           :   Jitendra Kumar
Counsel for Opposite Party(s)                      :   G.A.

Court No. - 74
                   HON'BLE SANJAY KUMAR PACHORI, J.

1. Heard Shri Jitendra Kumar, learned counsel for the applicants and Shri
Ashwani Kumar Rai, learned A.G.A. for the State.

2. The present application under Section 528 of Bhartiya Nagrik Suraksha
Sanhita, 2023 has been filed by the applicants to quash the entire
proceedings of Criminal Case No. 11978 of 2024 (State v. Yadunath Singh
and others) arising out of Case Crime No. 246 of 2022, under Sections 419,
420, 467, 468, 471, 504, 506 I.P.C., Police Station- Mangalpur, District-
Kanpur Dehat as well as cognizance/ summoning order dated
27.06.2024, pending in the court Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Court
No. 1 Kanpur Dehat.

3. While assailing the impugned order, contention of learned counsel for the
applicants is that learned Magistrate has not applied judicial mind in passing
the order as the order has been made on a printed proforma, in which the
name of the accused, case crime number and Section has been filled up by
hand.

4. Relying upon the decision of this Court in Ankit Vs. State of U.P. and
another, JIC 2010 (1) 432, submission of the learned counsel for the
applicants is that the order impugned, being on a printed proforma, is clearly
without application of judicial mind and hence, is liable to be quashed on
this ground alone.

5. Learned A.G.A. has also admitted that the order impugned has been
passed on the printed proforma and therefore, keeping in view the decision
in the case of Ankit (supra), the Magistrate concerned may be directed to
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pass a fresh order.

6. I have considered the arguments so advanced by learned counsel for the
applicants and learned A.G.A. and also perused the record.

7. The certified copy of the order summoning the accused has been
appended as Annexure-3 at page-59 of the paper book. From a perusal of the
above order, it is evident that it is a typed proforma where only information
of case number, name of parties, section, date and next date is to be filled by
Magistrate in handwriting. It appears that the blanks in the printed proforma
have been filled up by some court employee and the Additional Chief
Judicial Magistrate, Court No. 1 Kanpur Dehat has thereafter just put his
initial, which leads to the conclusion that the Magistrate has passed the order
in a mechanical manner without application of judicial mind.

8. Despite there being a series of decisions of the Apex Court and this Court
disapproving such practice of passing orders on printed proforma by the
judicial officers, it is very painful and unfortunate to see that applicant in the
present case has been summoned by the Magistrate by an order in which
blanks have been filled in on a printed proforma without applying judicial
mind. This type of order has already been held unsustainable by this Court in
the case of Ankit (supra) relying on in a number of decisions of the Apex
Court. The relevant portion of the said decision, is extracted below:

"8. ...Although as held by this Court in the case of Megh Nath Guptas & Anr V State
of U.P. And Anr, 2008 (62) ACC 826, in which reference has been made to the cases
of Deputy Chief Controller Import and Export Vs Roshan Lal Agarwal, 2003 (4) ACC
686 (SC), UP Pollution Control Board Vs Mohan Meakins, 2000 (2) JIC 159 (SC):
AIR 2000 SC 1456 and Kanti Bhadra Vs State of West Bengal, 2000 (1) JIC 751 (SC):
2000 (40) ACC 441 (SC), the Magistrate is not required to pass detailed reasoned
order at the time of taking cognizance on the charge sheet, but it does not mean that
order of taking cognizance can be passed by filling up the blanks on printed proforma.
At the time of passing any judicial order including the order taking cognizance on the
charge sheet, the Court is required to apply judicial mind and even the order of taking
cognizance cannot be passed in mechanical manner. Therefore, the impugned order is
liable to be quashed and the matter has to be sent back to the Court below for passing
fresh order on the charge sheet after applying judicial mind."

9. In view of the above, the conduct of the judicial officers concerned in
passing orders on printed proforma by filling up the blanks without
application of judicial mind is objectionable and deserves to be deprecated.
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                                    The summoning of an accused in a criminal case is a serious matter and the
                                    order must reflect that Magistrate had applied his mind to the facts as well as
                                    law applicable thereto.

                                    10. In view of what has been stated above, the present application is allowed
                                    . The order impugned dated 27.06.2024 passed by Additional Chief Judicial
                                    Magistrate, Court No. 1 Kanpur Dehat is, hereby, quashed. The Magistrate
                                    is directed to pass fresh order after applying the judicial mind.

                                    March 18, 2026
                                    Rama Kant
                                                                                        (Sanjay Kumar Pachori,J.)




Digitally signed by :-
RAMA KANT
High Court of Judicature at Allahabad