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M.C. Ravikumar v. D.S. Velmurugan

Criminal Appeal · 2025 INSC 888Decided 23 Jul 2025
Crl.A. No.-003122-003122 - 2025 (Arising out of SLP (Crl.) No(s). 12715 of 2022)
Justice Vikram Nath · Justice Sandeep Mehta

Background

The complainant had lent money and deposited property title deeds as security with the accused during 2005-2008. After he repaid the loans and the accused failed to return the documents, he filed a criminal complaint alleging fraud and cheating. The accused's first petition to quash this complaint was dismissed by the Madras High Court, but six months later they filed a second quashing petition on essentially the same grounds, which the High Court allowed, quashing the complaint entirely.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that a second quashing petition under Section 482 CrPC is not automatically barred, but it cannot be used to raise grounds that were already available and could have been raised in the first petition, doing so amounts to an impermissible "review" of the earlier order, which Section 362 CrPC expressly bars except for correcting clerical errors. Since the ground relied upon in the second petition (quashing of a related complaint concerning other property) had occurred before the first petition was even decided, it was available all along and could not justify a fresh round. The Court restored the criminal complaint to the trial magistrate, while leaving all defences open to the accused at trial.

Lesson Learnt

A litigant cannot use repeated Section 482 CrPC petitions to relitigate the same case by withholding an available ground and raising it later. Courts treat this as an abuse of process, and only a genuine change in circumstances after the first petition can justify a second one.

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

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