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Vishnu Kumar Shukla & Anr. vs. The State of Uttar Pradesh & Anr.

Criminal Appeal · 2023 INSC 1026Decided 28 Nov 2023
Criminal Appeal No. 3618 of 2023
Vikram Nath · Ahsanuddin Amanullah · Hima Kohli as a bench member

Background

A husband and wife who owned a shop (purchased by the wife through a registered sale deed) were accused by their tenant of breaking into the shop, looting stock and documents, and were charged under IPC provisions for house-trespass and theft. The couple argued the criminal case was retaliatory, pointing out that the tenant's claim of tenancy relied on a document dated 2005 that bore the Rupee currency symbol (₹): a symbol that was only officially adopted in 2010, exposing the document as likely forged. A civil court had separately found, prima facie, that the tenant had committed forgery in relation to this very document. The trial court and the Allahabad High Court had both refused to discharge the couple from the criminal case.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the tenant's entire claim to be in possession of the shop rested on a document that bore an anachronistic currency symbol not in existence when the document was supposedly signed, and that a competent civil court had already found this document to be forged and directed criminal proceedings against the tenant himself. Combined with the fact that the police itself had dropped the more serious charges of house-breaking and theft, leaving only a weak trespass charge, the Court held there was no suspicion, let alone the "grave suspicion" required, to justify forcing the couple to stand trial. Surveying precedent on the scope of a discharge application, the Court held that the High Court had failed to properly reason why discharge was denied, and that the prosecution amounted to an abuse of the court's process against the rightful property owners. The appeal was allowed, the impugned judgments set aside, and the appellants discharged.

Lesson Learnt

A criminal prosecution built on a forged or clearly fabricated document, one already flagged as fraudulent by another court, will not survive scrutiny, and courts have a duty to discharge accused persons from vexatious criminal cases rather than force them through a full trial.

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

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