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The State of Maharashtra v. Avinash

Criminal Appeal · 2017 INSC 871Decided 7 Sept 2017
Criminal Appeal No. 1580 of 2017
Justice N.V. Ramana · Dr. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud

Background

The respondent, Avinash, was arrested in connection with an alleged Rs. 2.74 crore investment fraud and his bank accounts were frozen. After being released on bail on condition of large monthly deposits, he twice sought relief relating to his frozen bank accounts: first via a Section 482 Cr.P.C. application before a Division Bench (which he withdrew without pressing that specific prayer), and then, after his modification application was separately rejected, via a fresh Section 482 application before a Single Judge, who ordered the accounts de-frozen.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that because the respondent had already sought, and not pressed, the de-freezing relief before the Division Bench, filing a near-identical fresh application for the same relief before a Single Judge (who was not informed of the earlier withdrawal) amounted to a manifest abuse of the process of court. The Court expressly declined to rule on the substantive legal question of whether the MPID Act's special procedure overrides Section 102 Cr.P.C. attachment powers, keeping that question open for another case. On the abuse-of-process ground alone, it allowed the State's appeal, set aside the Single Judge's order, and dismissed the respondent's criminal application.

Lesson Learnt

A litigant cannot abandon a specific prayer before one bench and then re-litigate the identical relief before a different judge of the same court without disclosing that history: courts treat this as an abuse of process and will undo any relief obtained that way, regardless of the underlying merits.

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

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