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Ahmad Ali Quraishi & Anr. v. The State of Uttar Pradesh & Anr.

Criminal Appeal · 2020 INSC 112Decided 30 Jan 2020
Criminal Appeal No. 138 of 2020
Justice Ashok Bhushan · Justice M.R. Shah

Background

The appellants and the complainant were neighbours and relatives locked in a long-running civil property dispute. After a quarrel in July 2016, the complainant alleged the appellants had molested his daughters near a public hand pump and then forced entry into his house to assault the family; an earlier application for police investigation under Section 156(3) CrPC on the same allegations had already been rejected by a Sessions Judge for lack of sufficient grounds. The complainant then filed a fresh private complaint, which a Magistrate used to summon the appellants as accused, and the Allahabad High Court declined to quash these proceedings under Section 482 CrPC.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court examined the sequence of events, the pre-existing property suit, the police's own on-the-spot peace-keeping action on the day of the alleged incident (rather than registering a serious offence), and the earlier judicial finding that there were insufficient grounds to proceed, and found this was a case of criminal proceedings launched out of personal and family grudge rather than genuine criminality. Applying the Supreme Court's own established categories from State of Haryana v. Bhajan Lal for when criminal proceedings should be quashed, it held the case fell squarely within the category of proceedings instituted maliciously with an ulterior motive, and that the High Court had failed to properly test the facts against those categories. The Court allowed the appeal and quashed the criminal proceedings against the appellants.

Lesson Learnt

Where criminal allegations arise against a backdrop of a pre-existing civil/family dispute and an earlier, similar complaint was already found groundless, courts can and will step in under Section 482 CrPC to quash a later prosecution shown to be a tool of personal vendetta rather than a genuine criminal complaint.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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