Supreme Court quashes case against NGO founder accused of getting Governor's letter on false facts

The Supreme Court recently quashed a cheating case against Pragati Chauhan, the founder of an non-governmental organisation named Pragati Foundation, on finding that the allegations against her were vague and did not make out any criminal offence [Pragati Chauhan vs State of Uttar Pradesh and ors]..Chauhan had been booked on allegations that she secured a letter from the Governor of Uttar Pradesh regarding the activities of her foundation on a misrepresentation of facts. However, the Supreme Court Bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Aravind Kumar found that the allegations were extremely vague, generalized and did not constitute any crime. "No offence has been made out on our bare perusal of FIR. Even on our repeated query to the learned counsel for the State, we find no satisfactory answer as to what offence is made out from the FIR itself," the Court found. .The foundation, among other activities, undertook the care of children suffering from tuberculosis during the COVID pandemic. The Uttar Pradesh Governor issued a "motivation letter" recognising such activities in 2021.However, a criminal complaint was later filed against Chauhan by the District Program Coordinator at Tuberculosis Centre in Aligarh, who accused the foundation of securing the Governor's letter on wrong facts..A district court had refused her anticipatory bail initially, but the Allahabad High Court later did. However, in July 2021, the High Court refused to quash the criminal case against her and opined that police investigation must continue. This verdict was challenged by Chauhan before the Supreme Court, which allowed her appeal on April 22. .The top court held that the continuance of criminal proceedings amounted to an abuse of the process of law and opined that the High Court ought to have quashed the criminal case."The FIR only says that the appellant has not properly attended to 20 children suffering from tuberculosis and although they have obtained a certificate to that effect from the Governor of U.P. The allegations are again extremely vague and generalized. It does not specify any detail or give any references of what the appellant has done or what she has not done which she was supposed to do. Under these vague charges and from a perusal of the FIR, we are of the considered opinion that no offence is made out," the Supreme Court reasoned. .Senior Advocate Arvind Varma with advocates Aarushi Singh, Smridhi Sharma, Mana Singh, Mahima Chauhan, Tanisha J Munir, and Neeraj Shekhar appeared pro bono for the petitioner, one Pragati Chauhan.Advocates Shashank Shekhar Singh and Abhinav Singh appeared for the State of Uttar Pradesh..[Read order]