SHASHIKANT SHARMA & ORS. versus STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH & ANR.

Citation: [2023] 15 S.C.R. 1067 · Decided: 01-12-2023 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: PAMIDIGHANTAM SRI NARASIMHA · Disposal: Appeal(s) allowed

Judgment (excerpt)

[2023] 15 S.C.R. 1067 : 2023 INSC 1036
1067
CASE DETAILS
SHASHIKANT SHARMA & ORS.
v. 
STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH & ANR.
(Criminal Appeal No. 3663 of 2023)
DECEMBER 01, 2023
[PAMIDIGHANTAM SRI NARASIMHA AND 
SANDEEP MEHTA, JJ.]
HEADNOTES
Issue for consideration: Whether the prima facie ingredients of the 
off ence punishable u/s. 3(2)(v) of the SC/ST Act were made out against the 
appellants.
Penal Code, 1860 – ss.147, 148, 149, 307, 323, 504 – Scheduled 
Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 – 
s.3(2)(v) – Appellants, at the outset, conceded that so far as the off ences 
punishable under IPC are concerned, the prayer for discharge would 
require extensive evaluation of evidence and hence, challenge to the 
order framing charges was given up – However, the ingredients of s.3(2)
(v) of the SC/ST Act are not prima facie made out against the accused 
appellants from the admitted allegations of the prosecution.
Held: As per the highest case of prosecution, the accused ‘VU’ fi red 
a gun shot at ‘R’ which hit him in the left thigh – The only projection 
made in the prosecution case regarding the off ence under SC/ST Act was 
that the witness ‘VK’ being a member of SC community was subjected 
to casteist abuses by the accused appellants after the gunshot was fi red 
at ‘R’ – However, the medicolegal report opined that a boil/abscess was 
noticed on R’s thigh and no evidence of gun shot was found – From a 
bare perusal of the s.3(2)(v) of the SC/ST Act, it is crystal clear that for 
the off ence to be constituted, there must be an allegation that the accused 
not being a member of Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe committed an 
off ence under the IPC punishable for a term of 10 years or more against 
1068 
SUPREME COURT REPORTS 
[2023] 15 S.C.R.
a member of the Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe knowing that such 
person belongs to such ‘community’ – Going by the material collected 
during investigation, it is manifest that the incident had the undertones of a 
political rivalry – Be that as it may, as per the highest case of prosecution, 
the only off ence under IPC punishable with imprisonment of 10 years or 
more being the off ence u/s. 307 IPC has been applied on the basis of the 
gun shot allegedly fi red by the accused ‘VU’ upon ‘R’, which admittedly 
did not result into any corresponding injury – After perusal of the entire 
material on record, there is no hesitation in concluding that from the 
admitted case set up by the prosecution, there is no such allegation that 
the off ence under IPC punishable with imprisonment of 10 years or more 
was committed by an accused of upper caste upon a person belonging 
to the Scheduled Caste community with the knowledge that such person 
belonged to the said community. [Paras 14, 15, 16, 17]
LIST OF CITATIONS AND OTHER REFERENCES
Suresh @ Pappu Bhudharmal Kalani v. State of Maharashtra, AIR 
(2001) SC 1375 – referred to.
OTHER CASE DETAILS INCLUDING IMPUGNED 
ORDER AND APPEARANCES
CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Criminal Appeal No. 
3663 of 2023.
From the Judgment and Order dated 06.04.2023 of the High Court of 
Judicature at Allahabad in CRLA No.3107 of 2023.
Appearances:
R. Basant, Sr. Adv., Neeraj K. Sharma, Priyanka Sharma, Harendra 
Singh, Pawan Kumar Sharma, Amit Shrivastava, P. Sharma, Sharath, Advs. 
for the Appellants.
Sharan Dev Singh Thakur, A.A.G., Sanjay Hegde, Sr. Adv., Ms. 
Swetashwa Agarwal, Sanchit Garga, Ms. Mithu Jain, Kunal Rana, Ms. 
Sneha Goswami, Ms. Ruchira Goel, Aviral Saxena, Sharanya Sinha, Harsh 
Pratap Shahi, Mustafa Sajad, Adit Jayeshbhai Shah, Ms. Keerti Jaya, Advs. 
for the Respondents.
1069
SHASHIKANT SHARMA & ORS. v. STATE OF UTTAR 
PRADESH & ANR.
JUDGMENT / ORDER OF THE SUPREME COURT
JUDGMENT
MEHTA, J.
1. Leave granted.
2. The instant appeal has been preferred by the accused appellants 
questioning the legality and validity of the Order dated 6th April, 2023 passed 
by the learned Single Judge of the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad 
rejecting the Criminal Appeal No. 3107/2023 preferred by the accused 
appellants under Section 14A(1) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled 
Tribes(Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989(hereinafter being referred to as 
the ‘SC/ST Act’). The learned appellate Court affi  rmed the Order dated 14th 
March, 2023 passed by the learned Special Judge SC/ST(PoA) Act, Hathras 
in Session Case No. 228/2021, rejecting the application for discharge fi led by 
the accused appellants under Section 227 of the Crimin

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