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M/S Suvarna Cooperative Bank Ltd v. The State of Karnataka

Criminal Appeal · 2021 INSC 854Decided 9 Dec 2021
Criminal Appeal No. 1535 of 2021
Justice M.R. Shah · Justice B.V. Nagarathna

Background

A cooperative bank had filed a criminal complaint alleging cheating and criminal breach of trust by a bank official in connection with dishonoured cheques, which led to an FIR and a charge-sheet against the accused. The Karnataka High Court quashed the criminal proceedings against the main accused, reasoning that since two other named accused were not arrayed in the private complaint, the charge-sheet against this one accused alone was incomplete and could not proceed. The complainant bank then appealed to the Supreme Court against this quashing.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the High Court's reasoning was legally unsustainable. It ruled that the mere fact that other possibly complicit persons were not charge-sheeted cannot be a ground to quash proceedings against a person who was charge-sheeted after a proper police investigation. The Court noted that if evidence during trial reveals the involvement of other persons, they can always be added as accused under Section 319 CrPC. Since the High Court had not examined the merits of the actual allegations against the accused, its quashing order was set aside and the appeal was allowed, meaning the accused must now stand trial.

Lesson Learnt

A criminal case properly investigated and charge-sheeted against one accused cannot be thrown out merely because other suspected persons were left out of the original complaint: the remedy is to add them later, not to let the charged person escape trial.

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

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