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Babu Venkatesh & Others vs. State of Karnataka & Another

Criminal Appeal · 2022 INSC 209Decided 18 Feb 2022
Criminal Appeal No. 252 of 2022
B.R. Gavai · Krishna Murari

Background

The appellants (a father-son family) and a Bangalore property owner (respondent no. 2) had entered into Agreements for Sale, after which the appellants filed four civil suits in 2017 for specific performance when the respondent allegedly avoided registering the sale deeds. About a year and a half after filing his written statement in those suits, the respondent lodged a police complaint and then four private complaints alleging that the appellants had forged the sale agreements using blank stamp papers and cheques taken from him as loan security. A magistrate ordered a police investigation under Section 156(3) CrPC without any supporting affidavit, leading to FIRs against the appellants, and the Karnataka High Court refused to quash these FIRs.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the criminal complaints were filed with an ulterior motive to harass the appellants, given the long delay after the civil suits were contested, fitting squarely within category 7 of the classic guidelines in State of Haryana v. Bhajan Lal for quashing malicious prosecutions. The Court also found an independent, freestanding defect: relying on its earlier ruling in Priyanka Srivastava v. State of U.P., it held that an application under Section 156(3) CrPC must be supported by a sworn affidavit so that the complainant is held accountable, and that the Magistrate must verify the genuineness of allegations before ordering an investigation, neither of which happened here. Because the underlying civil dispute over the sale agreements was already being litigated and the criminal route was invoked without following this safeguard, the Court held that continuing the prosecution would amount to an abuse of the legal process. It accordingly allowed the appeals, quashed the four FIRs, and set aside the High Court's orders.

Lesson Learnt

A criminal complaint cannot be used as a shortcut or pressure tactic to settle what is essentially a civil/contractual dispute already before the courts; and any request to a magistrate for a police investigation under Section 156(3) CrPC must be backed by a sworn affidavit, without which the direction for investigation is legally unsustainable.

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

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