NITIN KHANDELWAL Vs. STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This order shall also govern the disposal of M.Cr.C. No.16430/2021, as both these petitions under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 have arisen out of an order dated 10.03.2021 passed by 2nd Additional Sessions Judge, Indore, District Indore (MP) in Criminal Revision No.04/2021.

(2.) The aforesaid criminal revision was filed by the respondent / State of Madhya Pradesh against the order dated 29.01.2021 passed by Judicial Magistrate First Class, Dr. Ambedkar Nagar, District Indore (MP) in Criminal Case No.266/2020 whereby the learned Judicial Magistrate has granted the "default bail" to the petitioners under Section 167 (2)(a)(ii) of the Cr.P.C. on the ground that the charge sheet has not been filed within the prescribed period of 60 days.

(3.) Dehors the unnecessary details, the brief facts of the case are that the petitioners were initially arrested on 02.11.2020 in connection with an offence under Sections 420 and 120-B/34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 read with Section 3/4 of the MP Public Gambling Act, 1976, but as the investigation ensued, it was found that the offence also involved Sections 467, 468 and 471 of IPC and Sections 66-C and 66-D of Information Technology Act, 2000. Thus, a formal memo of arrest was also prepared on 04.11.2020 wherein the aforesaid sections were also included. Petitioner Nikhil Halabhavi was arrested on 24.11.2020 and was remanded on 28.11.2020. However, as the charge sheet was not filed even after a period of sixty days from the date of arrest of the petitioners, seperate applications under Section 167 (2) of the Cr.P.C. was preferred by them claiming "default bail" on the ground of non-filing of the charge sheet within sixty days' time. The aforesaid application was decided by the learned Judicial Magistrate vide its order dated 29.01.2021 relying upon the decisions in the case of Nitin Nikhra v. State of MP,2019 SCCOnlineMP 4459, Shalini Verma and another v. State of Chhatisgarh,2019 SCCOnlineChhatisgarh 22and in the case of Rakesh Kumar Paul v. State of Assam, 2017 15 SCC 67, holding that as per the aforesaid decisions, the sections under which the petitioners have been implicated, a sentence up to ten years can also be imposed, as it is not neces- sary under Section 467 of IPC that a minimum sentence of ten years be imposed.