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Padma Mishra v. State of Uttarakhand & Anr.

Criminal Appeal · 2020 INSC 179Decided 13 Feb 2020
Criminal Appeal No. 20 of 2010
Justice Indira Banerjee · Justice Aniruddha Bose

Background

An FIR was registered against Padma Mishra and others under the UP Gangsters Act, alleging they used threats, intimidation, and violence against ordinary people and had multiple pending criminal cases against them, including for attempt to murder and criminal intimidation. Mishra approached the Uttarakhand High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution seeking to have the FIR quashed, but the High Court dismissed her writ petition, and she appealed to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court reiterated that in writ proceedings, a court does not adjudicate the truth or falsity of allegations in an FIR: it may only intervene in exceptional cases where the FIR, on its face, discloses no offence at all. Since the FIR specifically listed several pending criminal cases against the appellant and described conduct amounting to intimidation and violence that could constitute "gang" activity under the Act's definitions, the Court held it could not be said that no offence was disclosed. It upheld the High Court's refusal to quash the FIR and dismissed the appeal.

Lesson Learnt

Courts will not quash an FIR merely because an accused person disputes the allegations against them, quashing at the threshold is reserved for the rare case where the FIR itself, taken at face value, does not disclose any offence whatsoever.

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

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