The Allahabad High Court has cautioned the superior authorities of ‘V Bazar’ against compelling employees to wear the Santa Claus red cap. The High Court held that such type of action is not permitted in the democratic system of the country wherein every citizen is free to follow his/her faith and belief.

The High Court was considering an application preferred by the applicant seeking quashing of a charge sheet, cognizance/summoning order passed by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Agra and the entire proceedings of a criminal case registered under Sections 298, 504 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The Single Bench of Justice Saurabh Srivastava held, “The above mentioned order has been passed in pursuance to the mandatory provision of law which provides to prefer complaint in case of non-cognizable offences but at the same time the documents which have been appended along with affidavit in support of the application, crystal clearly shows that compulsion has been created by the superior authorities of "V Bazar" for wearing Santa Claus Red Cap which is somehow hurting the sentiments of the different faith and beliefs and this type of action is not permitted in the democratic system of the country wherein every citizen is free to follow his/her faith and belief. Applicant along with his superior authorities are hereby warned not to repeat this type of instructions in shape of disturbing the peaceful and harmonious atmosphere of the working place amongst their employees.”


Advocate Anand Kumar Dwivedi represented the Applicant while Government Advocate represented the Opposite Party.

Arguments

It was the case of the applicants that offences under Sections 298 and 504 of the I.P.C. are non-cognizable and, in view of the explanation to Section 2(d) CrPC, the charge sheet filed by the Investigating Officer concerned cannot proceed as a police case and the same is liable to be proceeded with as a complaint case.

Reasoning

Referring to of Section 2 (d) which defines the term complaint, the Bench held that the charge sheet submitted by the concerned Investigating Officer in the present case under Sections 298, 504 I.P.C. had to treated as complaint and it was to be decided as complaint. As per the Bench, the Magistrate fell into legal error by taking cognisance as a State case.

On a perusal of the facts of the case, the Bench noted that compulsion had been created by the superior authorities of "V Bazar" for wearing Santa Claus Red Cap. Holding that this type of action is not permitted in the democratic system of the country, the Bench warned the Applicant along with his superior authorities not to repeat this type of instructions in shape of disturbing the peaceful and harmonious atmosphere of the working place amongst their employees.

With such observations, the Bench partly allowed the application and set aside the order of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Agra, summoning the applicant.

Cause Title: Vikram Singh @ Vishwa Vikram Singh v. State of U.P. and Another (Neutral Citation: 2026:AHC:191034)

Appearance

Applicant: Advocates Anand Kumar Dwivedi, Raj Kumar Mishra

Opposite Party: Government Advocate

Click here to read/download Order


Allahabad High CourtJustice Saurabh Srivastava

Tulip Kanth

Assistant Editor

Tulip Kanth is an Assistant Editor at Verdictum having over 5 years of experience in the field of legal journalism and editing. She extensively covers judgments of the Supreme Court, High Courts as well as Tribunals. She has previously worked with a legal publishing website where she oversaw the work of other editors and has also created updates on notifications of different Government Ministries. She holds an English Honours Degree from SGTB Khalsa College, Delhi University and has completed her LLB course with specialisation in Corporate Law from Amity University.