Source - Livelaw.in
The Supreme Court will consider whether when hearing a petition to quash FIR, the High Court will pass an order shielding the accused from arrest before the charge sheet is submitted pursuant to Section 173(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure? In an SLP filed against the Allahabad High Court order, the bench comprising Justices DY Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra issued a notice granting such protection while refusing to quash a FIR.
In this case, the accused asked the High Court to quash the FIR recorded under Sections 323, 504, 506, 313, 307, 498-A IPC and Section 3/4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act, pursuant to a complaint lodged by his wife against him. While the court declined to quash the FIR, it granted the accused temporary immunity before the final report was submitted. The counsel for the petitioner (wife) relied on the judgement of the Supreme Court in State of Telangana v H H before the Apex Court, assailing the order,Abib Abdullah Jeelani argued that such a course was inadmissible under the statute.
In that judgement, the Court explored the question if, though the High Court declined to exercise its inherent powers under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) to intervene with the request to quash the inquiry, it was able to prohibit the investigating agency from arresting the accused persons during the investigation. Such a direction was considered to be 'amounting' to an order under Section 438 CrPC by the High Court, but without meeting the requirements of that clause, which is legally unacceptable.