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Vishwas Bhandari v. The State of Punjab

Criminal Appeal · 2021 INSC 57Decided 3 Feb 2021
Criminal Appeal No. 105 of 2021
Justice Hemant Gupta · Justice S. Ravindra Bhat

Background

An FIR was lodged in 2013 alleging that the appellant, along with one Vikram Roop Rai, had kidnapped a 17½-year-old girl for the purpose of marriage. The main accused, Vikram Roop Rai, was separately tried and acquitted after the girl testified that she had gone with him voluntarily, later married him with both families' consent, and had two children with him. The appellant, however, was never named by either the complainant or the girl as having played any role in the alleged abduction, yet proceedings against him continued. The Punjab and Haryana High Court refused to quash the case against him, prompting this appeal to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court found that neither the complainant nor the prosecutrix had levelled any allegation whatsoever against the appellant: the only allegation was against Vikram Roop Rai, who had already been acquitted after marrying the girl with family consent. The Court held that continuing criminal proceedings against someone with no evidence against them amounts to an abuse of the process of law, and the High Court was wrong to have declined to quash the case. The appeal was allowed, the High Court's order was set aside, and the entire proceedings arising from the FIR and the chargesheet against the appellant were quashed.

Lesson Learnt

Courts will step in to quash criminal proceedings under Section 482 CrPC where the evidence on record shows no allegation at all against an accused, continuing a prosecution with no evidentiary basis is itself an abuse of the legal process.

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

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