R/CR.MA/8890/2017 ORDER
IN THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD
CRIMINAL MISC.APPLICATION (FOR ANTICIPATORY BAIL ) NO. 8890 of
2017
MUKTAK NAVNITLAL KAPADIA….Applicant(s)
Versus
STATE OF GUJARAT….Respondent(s)
Appearance:
MR ND NANAVATY, SR. ADVOCATE WITH MR MRUGEN K PUROHIT,
ADVOCATE for the Applicant(s) No. 1
MR LB DABHI, APP for the Respondent(s) No. 1
CORAM: HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE N.V.ANJARIA
Date : 12/04/2017
ORAL ORDER
The present application is filed by the
applicant under Section 438 of the Code of Criminal
Procedure, 1973 seeking anticipatory bail.
2. The grant of anticipatory bail is prayed for
in connection with First Information Report bearing
Crime Register No.I-36 of 2017 dated 13th March, 2017
registered with Ghatlodia Police Station, Ahmedabad,
in respect of the offences alleged under Sections 406
and 420 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. The present
applicant-accused happens to be the trustee of the
school named as accused in the First Information
Report. The offences alleged are in relation to
extending false promice to the hundreds of parents and
inducing them to pay high amount of fees for admission
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in the Junior Kindergarten on the false pretext that
it was in the Central Board (CBSE) syllabus by
charging huge amount of fees. The commission of
offences were shown to have been occurred since 2015.
3. The first informant in the F.I.R. was one of
the parents. He stated that he was serving as Purchase
Manager at Krishna Shalby since six years, had son
aged six years and younger son aged three years. He
alleged that during the academic year 2015-16 he was
searching a good school for admitting his son to
Junior K.G. Class. As he went to the school
administered by the applicant-accused, other parents
had also come, and the administrator and the principal
of the school-the accused persons in the F.I.R., gave
out to all the parents who were seeking admission for
their wards, that their school had CBSE recognition
and such recognition is obtained for the class
starting from Nursery to 8th standard. It was promised
that the ward would get admitted automatically to the
higher standard in the same set-of of course, that is
CBSE syllabus. The first informant was charged
Rs.40,000/- towards tuition fees and admission fees.
He alleged that however despite payment, no receipt
was given to him by the school management. Further
fees of Rs.20,000/- was paid in respect of the term of
the next academic year, for which also no receipt was
parted with.
3.1 It was alleged that in the meantime the
first informant and other parents came to know from
the sources that the school namely H.B. Kapadia, where
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they had secured admissions for their wards in the
Junior K.G. as above, did not have any CBSE
recognition in actuality. When they gathered further
details, they found that the school management had
collected different amount of fees from different 400
parents of the wards admitted in the school. The
trustee and the administrator of the school stated at
that time that the recognition would be obtained as
soon as the wards entered the first standard. That did
not happen. The parents thereafter met the present
applicant who was the trustee administrator, and
complained him that they had collected against the
rules high amount of fees on the basis of promise that
they had CBSE course affiliation and it was alleged
that the accused persons, who were the trustee and
administrator of the school management, played with
the future of the children.
4. Heard learned senior counsel Mr.N.D.
Nanavaty with learned advocate Mr.M.K. Purohit for the
applicant and learned Additional Public Prosecutor
Mr.L.B. Dabhi for the State, at length.
5. The allegations in the First Information
Report highlighted above, are peculiar in themselves
pertaining to the field of education. They are
serious. They are peculiarly serious. The accused
herein who held the position of trust amongst the
parents of the budding students seeking admission to
the Junior Kindergarten classes, cheated them by
promising that the school run by the accused had the
Central Board (CBSE) recognition and that the ward
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would get automatically admitted and elevated to the
next standard in the CBSE set up. It was in about 400
cases of such promised admission, the accused persons
who were the administrators of the school, collected
huge amount ranging from Rs.45,000-50,000 from the
parents. They were the parents hailing from middle-
class of the society, dreaming and aspiring to get
imparted education for their children pinning hopes in
the promice meted out by the accused-school
administrators.
5.1 Banking upon the projected and promised
system and syllabus of study in CBSE affiliated
course, the parents paid sizable amounts for which
they must have spent their hard-earned money and dear
savings. In the entire case, the eye-catching aspect
was also that school management did not gave receipt
to the fees collected. The nature and seriousness of
the allegations are such which the society as a whole
would prefer to banish for all times to come.
5.2 It appears that accused persons had started
a section in their institution named as ‘9-Kids’ in
which the admissions as aforesaid were promised and
the students were inducted into as many as 18 classes
collecting huge fees. In some cases, the ward was
studying in another school, but relying on the say of
the school administrators-the accused persons, the
parents changed the school shifting their ward to seek
admission in the instant school. Cases were noticed
from the material that even more than one ward was got
admitted by the parents by paying fees. The payment of
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amount of fees was in the range of Rs.50,000/- for
which there was no criteria shown, as different
amounts were collected from the parents.
Investigational papers made available by learned
Additional Public Prosecutor from the investigating
officer present in the court contained the statements
of the aggrieved parents.
5.3 The offences alleged in the F.I.R. are of
cheating punishable under Section 420, IPC and of
criminal breach of trust under Section 406, IPC. The
submission of learned Additional Public Prosecutor
could not be brushed aside lightly that gist and the
attendant ingredients of these offences was dishonest
intention. It was submitted that prima facie the said
ingredient was established in the totality of the
allegations as the accused were alleged to have
collected huge fees on a false promise though CBSE
recognition was admittedly not there for the course in
question and that the same was applied online only as
late as on 14th February, 2017. He submitted that at
the time of inducement of the parents to act to part
with the amount of fees and to secure admission for
their wards, there was a dishonest intention.
Although, the side of the applicant sought to refute
this.
5.4 From the totality of the allegations, the
material in form of the statements recorded as well as
the details of the fees collected, the magnitude of
the act and conduct constituting commission of the
offence stands manifested. In Siddhram Stalingappa
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Mhetre v. State of Maharashtra [(2011) 1 SCC 694] one
of the parameters indicated by the Apex Court in
paragraph 112(vi) is “impact of grant of anticipatory
bail particularly in cases of large magnitude
affecting a very large number of people”. This
parameter could be said to be satisfied in the facts
of the present case. It could hardly be said that the
accusations levelled by the parents were for sake of
levelling them or that they have been made only with
the object of injuring or humiliating the applicant by
arresting him or her, which is the parameter indicated
in (vi) above.
5.5 Although the allegations are to be tested
for its final merits through the investigation which
has to be allowed to proceed, if they turn out to be
true, are reflective of the third alarming category,
besides the commercial crimes and the economic crimes,
the surge of which has been witnessed by the society.
This third category is the field of education and the
allegations in the F.I.R. represented it.
Commercialisation of the education when become
contaminated with criminalisation, the results are
bound to be disastrous.
5.6 In paragraph 120 of the Siddhram Stalingappa
Mhetre (supra), the Supreme Court underlined that the
court must learn to maintain a fine balance between
the personal liberty and the social interest while
considering the plea for anticipatory bail. The
present case could be viewed as one where the scales
of larger educational and social interests tilt
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higher.
6. Learned senior counsel tried to scale down
the seriousness of the allegations by submitting that
the complainant had entered into a Samjuti Karar (an
agreement of understanding). The said agreement was
shown to have been entered on 23rd March,2017. The
application for anticipatory bail before the learned
Sessions Court being Criminal Miscellaneous
Application No.589 of 2017 was filed much prior to the
said date and the same came to be dismissed on 21st
March, 2017, that is prior to 23rd March, 2017. It is
in the interregnum, before approaching this Court,
that the settlement was shown to have been acted upon.
In course of hearing, learned senior counsel showed a
letter dated 04th April, 2017 by the complainant
addressed to the Police Inspector, wherein it was
stated that the settlement was reached as above. The
date of 04th April, 2017, hopefully by way of a co-
incident, coincided with the date of filing of the
present application which is also 04th April, 2017.
6.1 It was, therefore, a feeble attempt on part
of the learned senior counsel to rely on the aforesaid
aspect. The said aspect could be viewed as symptom
revealed that the accused could conduct in such way.
These all are the aspects of investigation. There are
about 400 cases of aggrieved parents whose children
were granted admission in above way. The purported
settling with convenient few cannot be taken as a
mitigating aspect in seriousness of the allegations.
As noted above, the claim of the accused for personal
liberty has to compete with society’s interests and
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the later weighs higher in the facts and circumstances
of the present case.
7. Why the false promice was extended even
though CBSE recognition was not in existence; in any
case it was not to be there for Junior K.G. course in
question; what was the fee structure and what was the
rules for collection of fees; in what manner the
collection of fee was applied and acted upon; why
different amounts were collected from different
parents in the range of Rs.45,000-50,000 and what
motivated the accused persons to act and conduct in
such way smacking of dishonest intention, are all the
areas of investigation. It would be also the function
of the investigating agency to ascertain as to how the
dates of settlement projected and the date of letter
of the first informant coincided with the proceedings
of filing of legal proceedings in the nature of
application before the Sessions Court and before this
Court. In other words, simply stated, the total
operation of allegations, facts, attendant aspects and
the developments stated above, do spell out the need
for investigation and interrogation.
8. The different parameters and principles laid
down by the Apex Court in Siddhram (supra) were
considered and applied to the facts of the case. The
claim of personal liberty for the applicant-accused
could only be viewed as taking a back-seat against the
overriding facts, nature and seriousness of
allegations and the special aspects of the case stated
hereinabove.
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9. Having considered the allegations, gravity
thereof, attendant facts and aspects and assessing the
entire scenario emerging therefrom, further
considering all these aspects in light of the
investigational material made available, the Court is
not persuaded to exercise discretion in favour of the
applicant.
10. The present application stands rejected.
Notice is discharged.
(N.V.ANJARIA, J.)
Anup
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