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The Commissioner of Police v. Devender Anand

Criminal Appeal · 2019 INSC 878Decided 8 Aug 2019
Criminal Appeal No. 834 of 2017
Justice Arun Mishra · Justice S. Abdul Nazeer · Justice M.R. Shah

Background

The original complainant (Devender Anand) entered into an agreement to sell a Delhi property with two individuals for Rs. 54 lakhs and paid the full consideration. He later discovered the property was mortgaged to Andhra Bank, paid off that mortgage himself, and got the sale deed registered in his name. He then filed a criminal complaint alleging cheating under Section 420/34 IPC against the sellers for not disclosing the mortgage. After the police and an application under Section 156(3) Cr.P.C. did not result in registration of an FIR, he filed a writ petition in the Delhi High Court, which directed further action against the police officers and the original sellers and imposed costs on them; the Commissioner of Police and other police officers then appealed to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that once the complainant had paid off the mortgage and completed the sale, the dispute over the mortgage disclosure was essentially a civil dispute dressed up as a criminal complaint, and that the police officers' investigating officer had rightly concluded that no case for registering an FIR was made out. The Court found that the complainant had multiple civil remedies (he had already filed both a Section 156(3) application, which was rejected and not challenged, and a private complaint under Section 200 Cr.P.C.) and that resorting to a writ petition for criminal action on top of these was an abuse of the process of law. The Court held the High Court erred in issuing further directions and imposing costs on the police officers instead of simply closing the proceedings. It accordingly allowed the appeal, quashed the High Court's judgment and order, and also quashed the criminal proceedings pending before the Magistrate relating to the same transaction.

Lesson Learnt

Criminal law cannot be used as a tool to settle what is fundamentally a civil or commercial dispute (like a property/mortgage disagreement): courts will quash criminal proceedings, even against police officers who declined to register an FIR, where the underlying grievance is civil in nature and the complainant already has civil remedies available.

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

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