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Ritu Tomar vs The State of Uttar Pradesh

Criminal Appeal · 2023 INSC 410Decided 21 Apr 2023
Criminal Appeal No. 1210 of 2023
B.R. Gavai · Aravind Kumar · Sudhanshu Dhulia as the second judge · B.R. Gavai as the judge who actually sat with Justice Aravind Kumar

Background

The appellant's sister had married the third respondent, and their marriage broke down. She filed for maintenance and also lodged a dowry-harassment FIR against her husband and his family. In apparent response, the husband filed a complaint under Section 156(3) CrPC alleging that the appellant and her family had forcibly entered his house and attacked him and his father with a knife. The local police, on the Magistrate's direction to investigate this complaint, submitted a report concluding the incident was fabricated and that the accused had never visited the complainant's village, yet the Magistrate still ordered an FIR to be registered against the appellant, which she then sought to quash before the Allahabad High Court, without success.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court examined the police's own investigation report, which had found no villager or neighbour supported the complainant's version and concluded the incident was concocted, likely to pressure his wife and her family amid the ongoing maintenance and dowry disputes. It found that the Magistrate's order directing registration of the FIR gave no reasons for rejecting this considered police report. Given the background of matrimonial litigation between the two families and the complete absence of any corroborating evidence for the alleged assault, the Court held that the only reasonable conclusion was that the FIR against the appellant was false, and it quashed the criminal proceedings against her.

Lesson Learnt

Criminal law should not be misused as a tool for retaliation in a matrimonial dispute. Where a police investigation itself finds a complaint to be false and unsupported by any independent witness, courts can and should step in to quash such proceedings rather than let an accused be dragged through a baseless trial.

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

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