"Magistrate didn't apply judicious mind:" Allahabad High Court clubs three chargesheets filed in CAA-NRC protest FIRs

The Allahabad High Court recently directed the clubbing of three different chargesheets filed by the Uttar Pradesh Police in cases lodged against a person who took part in the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in 2019 (Shamshad Ahmad and others v. State of Uttar Pradesh)..Justice Rajesh Singh Chauhan applied the 'test of sameness' and clubbed all the chargesheets in the matter.The Court said that after taking cognisance of the initial chargesheet, the Magistrate should have asked the investigating agency as to why three separate chargesheets were filed for more or less similar incidents that occurred on the same day. The order stated,"So far as the manner in which the learned Magistrate has taken cognizance in all the three impugned charge-sheets is concerned, I must observe that while taking cognizance it appears that he has not applied his judicious mind and has not appreciated and perused the material available on record...".The Court was hearing three petitions moved by Shamshad Ahmad, manager of the committee looking after the daily affairs of a mosque situated at Dargah Sharif in Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh. The petitioner sought quashing of the three chargesheets filed against him.The petitioner was charged under Sections 147, 148, 149, 332, 336, 307, 353, 341, 427, 188 and 120-B of Indian Penal Code read with Section 3/4 of Public Property (Prevention of Damage) Act, 1985 and Section 7 of Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 1932.Before the High Court, counsel for petitioner submitted that for one alleged incident, which took place on the same day, three different FIRs should not have been lodged by the police.It was further argued that the test of sameness is applicable in the present case, as has been explained by the Supreme Court in the case of Babubhai v. State of Gujarat. In that case, the it was held that a second FIR is liable to be quashed if two FIRs relate to the same incident in respect of the same occurrence or are in regard to the incidents which are two or more parts of the same transaction.Counsel for the State opposed the plea and submitted that in view of Section 220(1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), since the petitioner has not committed the same offence, but different ones, he will have to be tried for all the chargesheets..The Court referred to a 2016 circular issued by the UP Police which prohibited the lodging of multiple FIRs with regard to one incident, and held that the 'test of sameness' would be applicable."In the present case, Investigating Officer should have clubbed all the FIRs and should have filed one charge-sheet. Such act of clubbing would have been in conformity with the Circular No.DG21/2016 dated 26.04.2016, which has been issued by the Director General of Police, Uttar Pradesh in consonance with the direction of Hon'ble Apex Court issued in re: T.T. Anthony (supra)," the Court held.Thus, the Court directed for the clubbing of the three chargesheets, noting that the the occurrence indicated in the second and third FIR was prima-facie a fall out of the first occurrence indicated in the first FIR..The petitioners were represented by Advocates Vikas Vikram Singh, Adeel Ahmad, Akram Azad and Yash Bharadwaj. Additional Government Advocate Anurag Verma appeared on behalf of the State. .[Read order]