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Vikram Johar v. The State of Uttar Pradesh & Anr.

Criminal Appeal · 2019 INSC 583Decided 26 Apr 2019
Criminal Appeal No. 759 of 2019
Justice Ashok Bhushan · Justice K.M. Joseph

Background

The appellant was an insurance surveyor appointed to assess a fire-damage claim made by a wood-processing company. After the appellant's survey report recommended repudiating the company's roughly Rs. 3.6-crore claim (for reasons including alleged misrepresentation), the company's partner (the complainant) filed a criminal complaint alleging that the appellant, along with armed companions, had come to his house, abused him, and attempted to assault him. Investigating officers twice found no evidence of the alleged incident and filed closure reports, but after protest petitions, a magistrate eventually summoned the appellant under Sections 504 (intentional insult) and 506 (criminal intimidation) IPC, and his application for discharge was rejected by the trial court and the Allahabad High Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that even taking the complaint's allegations at face value, they did not satisfy the legal ingredients of either Section 504 or Section 506 IPC. For Section 504, the Court reiterated that mere abuse is not enough: the insult must be of a degree likely to provoke the person to break the public peace or commit another offence, which the bare allegation of abuse did not establish. For Section 506, applying the settled requirements (a threat of injury to person, reputation or property, made with intent to cause alarm or compel/prevent an act), the Court found the complaint's vague allegation of being "abused" did not meet these elements either. It also noted the suspicious timing: the incident was allegedly reported more than a month after it supposedly occurred, shortly after the appellant's adverse survey report had been submitted. Accordingly, the Court allowed the appeal, set aside the High Court's and the trial court's orders, and discharged the appellant from the offences under Sections 504 and 506 IPC.

Lesson Learnt

Courts can and should discharge an accused at the threshold where the complaint's own allegations, even if fully believed, do not legally amount to the offence charged: vague claims of being "abused" or "threatened," without specifying conduct meeting the precise legal ingredients of intentional insult or criminal intimidation, are not enough to put someone through a criminal trial.

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

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