Criminal Procedure Code, 1973
Section 482—Inherent powers of High Court—Exercise of—Power under Section 482 CrPC is to be exercised sparingly only to prevent the abuse of process of court or otherwise to secure the ends of justice—Power under Section 482 CrPC is the inherent power and there cannot be any inflexible route which may govern the exercise of inherent jurisdiction—However though the powers possessed by the High Court under Section 482 CrPC are very wide but the same has to be exercised with caution.
[Para 80]
Indian Penal Code, 1860
Sections 406 & 420—Criminal breach of trust and cheating—Proof—For establishing the offence of cheating, the complainant is required to show in the FIR that the accused had fraudulent or dishonest intention at the time of making promise or representation—Every breach of contract would not give rise to an offence of cheating and only in those cases breach of contract would amount to cheating where there was any deception played at the very inception—Even in a case where allegations are made in regard to failure on the part of the accused to keep his promise, in the absence of a culpable intention at the time of making initial promise being absent, no offence under Section 420 of the IPC can be made out—Criminal proceedings shall not be encouraged when it is found to be mala fide or otherwise an abuse of the process of the court.
[Para 76]
Sections 406 & 420 read with Section 120B—Criminal breach of trust and conspiracy to cheat—Petition to quash FIR—Allegation that complainant was induced by petitioners to purchase Villa in the Goa Project—Case of complainant is that he paid the money against the allotment of a Villa whereas case of petitioner is that it was a money transaction and complainant got the allotment letter issued only to secure his interest—FIR was lodged after filing of complaints under Section 138 of the NI Act and proceedings were initiated before NCLT—Present dispute pertained to loan transactions thereby being of a civil commercial nature and FIR was lodged after seven years—Machinery of criminal justice system should not be wielded as an instrument of intimidation and harassment—In the recent past there has been a growing trend in lodging of frivolous FIR’s by giving civil disputes the garb of criminal matters in order to harass and intimidate the accused—To remedy the fate of lodging such frivolous FIR’s and setting the criminal justice into motion—High Court under its inherent power under Section 482 CrPC quash such FIR’s in justifiable cases in order to prevent the abuse of the process of the courts or to secure the ends of justice—Present dispute is predominantly of a civil commercial nature and has been given the garb of criminal case by filing of the present FIR—Fit case where power under Section 482 of CrPC is to be exercised as criminal colour has been given to a civil dispute—Petition allowed.
[Paras 81 & 82]