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Antonetto J D'Souza v. Aldila Braganza and Others

Criminal Appeal · 2026 INSC 1032Decided 22 Sept 2026
Criminal Appeal No. 4092 of 2026
Justice Ujjal Bhuyan · Justice Atul S. Chandurkar

Background

The appellant alleged that his neighbour (the accused) and her late father-in-law had built a structure in Goa using a forged, interpolated copy of an approved building plan, and lodged a police complaint in 2012. After investigation, a chargesheet for forgery and cheating was filed, and in 2017 a Magistrate framed charges, finding enough prima facie material despite the original (allegedly forged) plan never being recovered. The accused's revision against that order failed, and a first writ petition challenging the FIR and chargesheet was also dismissed by the High Court in 2023. Undeterred, the accused filed a second writ petition in 2024 raising the same core argument, absence of the original plan, and this time a Single Judge of the High Court accepted it and discharged her.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court set aside the discharge order and restored the criminal case. It held that the accused could not repeatedly re-litigate the very same "absence of original plan" argument that a Division Bench had already rejected in 2023. That earlier, unchallenged order was binding, and the principle of "issue estoppel" barred reagitating it. On the merits too, the Court held that the absence of the original allegedly-forged document does not automatically defeat a forgery prosecution; whether forgery is proved is a matter for trial based on the totality of evidence (including witness testimony and forensic material), not something to be decided by simply demanding production of a physical document at the charge-framing stage. The Court also noted that at the charge-framing stage, courts must only see if there is a prima facie/grave suspicion against the accused, not sift and weigh evidence as if conducting a mini-trial. The trial was ordered to proceed and be expedited given its long pendency since 2012.

Lesson Learnt

Once a High Court has rejected a particular legal argument in one round of proceedings and that order is not further challenged, the same argument cannot be recycled in a fresh petition; also, in forgery cases, the missing original document is not by itself a ground for discharge. The prosecution can still prove its case through other evidence at trial.

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

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