Indian Penal Code, 1860
Section 498A and Sections 3 & 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act—Dowry harassment—Quashing of proceedings by High Court—Appeal—At the stage of quashing, the Court is not required to conduct a mini trial—Jurisdiction under Section 482 of the CrPC with respect to quashing is somewhat limited as the court has to only consider whether any sufficient material is available to proceed against the accused or not—If sufficient material is available, the power under Section 482 of CrPC should not be exercised—High Court has erred in law by embarking upon an enquiry with regard to credibility or otherwise of the allegations in the complaints and FIR—Normally, for quashing an FIR, it must be shown that there exists no prima facie case against the accused persons—From the conjoint reading of the complaints and the FIR, it can be seen that prima facie allegations of harassment and demand of dowry are made out, despite that the High Court quashed the FIR against the private respondents primarily on the ground that the earlier two complaints that were filed by the appellant did not mention the specific instances and the same were later on mentioned in the FIR only as an afterthought and was a counterblast to the legal notice sent by first respondent/husband to the appellant as she was not coming back to her matrimonial home—Such approach adopted by the High Court amounts to conducting a mini trial—Impugned order passed by the High Court liable to be set aside—Appeal allowed.
[Paras 22 & 27]