‘Proclaimed Offender’ Declaration Under Section 82(4) CrPC Cannot Be Made Against Person Accused Of Sections 406, 420 IPC : Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court has held that a person accused of offences under Section 406(criminal breach of trust), 420(cheating) and 120B(criminal conspiracy) under the Indian Penal Code(IPC) cannot be declared as a ‘proclaimed offender’ under Section 82(4) of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The Court held that such a declaration can be made only against persons accused of the offences specified under Section 82(4), which are Sections 302, 304, 364,367,382,392,393,394,395,396,397,398,399,400,402,436,449,459 or 460 of IPC. Since Sections 406, 420 and 120B of the IPC are not mentioned in Section 82(4), the High Court quashed the order issued by the trial court for issuing process against the petitioner under Section 82 in the case Arun Kumar Parihar v State(Govt NCTD). To reach this conclusion, a single bench of Justice Anu Malhotra referred to the precedents in Manoj Tandon Vs. State(Delhi HC decision in Crl.M.C.1961/2020, dated 25.11.2020), Sanjay Bhandari vs. State (Delhi HC decision in Crl.Rev.Pet. No.223/2018, dated 31.07.2018) and Rishabh Sethi vs. State of Rajasthan and Ors(Rajasthan HC decision in Petition No.5767/2017). In Sanjay Bhandari, a single bench of Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva had held that the declaration under Section 82(4) can be made only with respect to the offences specified in the said section.