Neutral Citation No. - 2025:AHC:88870 Court No. - 52 Case :- APPLICATION U/S 528 BNSS No. - 14297 of 2025 Applicant :- Lalmani Opposite Party :- State of U.P. Counsel for Applicant :- Abhinav Tripathi,Abhishek Tripathi,Alok Kumar Pandey,Dilip Kumar Singh,Gyan Prakash Dwivedi Counsel for Opposite Party :- G.A. Hon'ble Mrs. Manju Rani Chauhan,J. Heard Mr. Gyan Prakash Dwivedi, learned counsel for applicant as well as Mr. S.N. Tiwari, learned A.G.A. for State and perused the record. The present 528 BNSS application has been filed to quash the entire proceeding of the Case No.817 of 2014 (State vs. Lalmani & Others) as well as N.B.W. dated 02.07.2015, arising out of Case Crime No.302 of 1996, under Sections 323, 504 I.P.C. and Section 3(1)10 SC/ST Act, Police Station- Tharwai, District- Allahabad, pending in the court of Additional District Judge-15, Allahabad. At the very outset, learned A.G.A. for the State submits that the charge sheet filed against the applicant is of the year 1997. He further submits that the applicant has been summoned in the year of 2015 and they have not placed anything on record to show that they have appeared before the court concerned. It is to be seen that in the present case the applicant has been summoned in the year 2015. However, the applicant has not appeared before the court concerned in pursuance to the aforesaid summoning order. The applicant has failed to substantiate before this Court in view of the reasoning stated hereinabove that due to some personal difficulty, they could not appear before the Court concerned. The proceedings of the court concerned have been held up on account of non appearance of the applicant and as such the applicant is fleeing from the process of law without any reasonable cause. "Fleeing from justice" refers to the act of accused in evading or avoiding arrest, prosecution, or punishment for a crime. An accused in aforesaid act tries to avoid facing criminal prosecution by often avoiding summons, warrants and other process issued by the court. An accused is legally bound to comply with the summons issued by the court of law except where the process is challenged before the higher forum by the accused. Any person who has been issued process by court of law cannot be permitted to evade the same thereby not permitting the court of law to proceed in the administration of justice. The said act of accused in avoiding the process of court of law without any justification effects the very cause of justice. An accused fleeing from justice without reasonable cause has the effect of stopping/slowing the criminal process of law which effects the cause of speedy justice to the victim or society at large. Non appearance of an accused before the court concerned when the summons has been served (without reasonable explanation for non-appearance) may be indicative of the fact that such accused do not have respect to the process of law. It is important for rule of law to prevail that the criminal trial is completed without delay. Where an accused flees from the process of law and thereby avoids appearing before the court, the very concept of speedy trial is put at peril and justice to the victim is delayed. The Supreme court in Vipan Kumar Dhir v. State of Punjab, (2021) 15 SCC 518 has observed that while granting bail, the possibility of the accused to influence prosecution witnesses, fleeing from justice or creating other impediments in the fair investigation, ought not to be overlooked. On the aforesaid, learned counsel for the applicant gave up his challenge to the aforesaid prayer and confined his submission requesting to grant some protection to the applicant to surrender before the concerned court below. The learned counsel for the applicant further stated at the Bar that he is not pressing any other prayer made in this application on merits and prayed that a direction may be issued to the concerned court below to consider and decide the bail application/surrender application of the applicant expeditiously. Learned A.G.A. for the State of U.P. submits that in case the applicant is not pressing the relief as sought for by him on merits and want to surrender before the concerned court below, he has no objection in granting protection to him for a short period. In view of above, considering the aforesaid alternative prayer made by learned counsel for the applicant, it is directed that the applicant shall file a surrender application before the concerned Court below within two weeks from today. On receiving the surrender application, the Court concerned shall obtain instructions from the public prosecutor and fix a date for appearance/surrender of the applicant and for hearing the applicant on surrender application. On the date fixed by the Court concerned, the applicant will have liberty to prefer a bail application and a copy of the same be provided to the public prosecutor. In case, any such bail application is filed, the same shall be considered by the court below along with the surrender application, on the date fixed, in accordance with law, after hearing the opposite party no.2, keeping in view the guidelines as laid down by the Hon’ble Apex Court. For the period of two weeks from today or till the surrender application is decided, whichever is earlier, the effect and operation of the order dated 02.07.2015 shall be kept in abeyance. In case the applicant does not comply with the aforesaid directions, the court below shall be free to take such measures for appearance of the applicant as required under the law. With the above observations and directions, this application under Section 528 BNSS is disposed off. Order Date :- 26.5.2025 Kalp Nath Singh Digitally signed by :- KALP NATH SINGH High Court of Judicature at Allahabad