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Hanumant Dinkar Arjun v. Suresh R. Andhare & Anr.

Criminal Appeal · 2019 INSC 619Decided 3 May 2019
Criminal Appeal No. 25 of 2009
Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre · Justice Dinesh Maheshwari

Background

The appellant filed a criminal complaint against respondent No. 1, a Sub-Inspector of Police, alleging offences under the IPC and the Bombay Police Act. The complaint was based on adverse observations made against the officer by a Sessions Judge in a separate murder trial (where four accused persons had been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment). The Magistrate and the Bombay High Court both declined to allow the complaint to proceed, prompting this appeal to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court noted that the very order containing the adverse observations against the police officer, the foundation of the appellant's complaint, was itself under challenge in a pending criminal appeal filed by the convicted accused persons, and so was sub judice. Since the foundation of the complaint had not yet attained finality, the Court held it would not be appropriate to entertain this appeal at this stage. It disposed of the appeal finally, without expressing any opinion on the merits, but gave the appellant liberty to raise his grievance afresh depending on the outcome of that pending criminal appeal.

Lesson Learnt

A court will generally decline to act on allegations whose factual basis is itself still being litigated and unsettled elsewhere: a complainant may need to wait for that foundational dispute to be finally resolved before a related complaint can be properly pursued.

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

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