When civil wrong is given cloak of criminal offence, High Court should quash criminal proceedings: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that in situations when a civil wrong is given a cloak of a criminal offence, the High Court should quash such criminal proceedings to prevent the abuse of process of court [R Nagender Yadav vs State of Telangana].

A bench of Justices Abdul Nazeer and JB Pardiwala ruled that while a complaint disclosing civil transaction may also have a criminal texture, the High Court must see whether the dispute, which is in substance of a civil nature, has been given a cloak of a criminal offence.

"In such a situation, if civil remedy is available and is in fact adopted, as has happened in the case on hand, the High Court should have quashed the criminal proceeding to prevent abuse of process of court," the Court said. 

This was a case where the complainant claimed that he had purchased a piece of land in 2018. His cousin, the appellant, was one of the witnesses who signed the sale deed. 

The complaint stated that all the original documents of the sale deed of 2018 was with his cousin, the appellant.

The case arose when it came to the knowledge that two years later in 2020, the said land was transferred to a third person under the signatures of the complainant and the appellant again was one of the witnesses to the transfer agreement. 

However, the complaint alleged that he did not know about any such transfer and his signatures were forged in the transfer agreement by the appellant and that it was a criminal conspiracy hatched by the third party and his cousin. 

After the High Court refused to quash the FIR under Section 482 CrPC against the appellant, he moved the apex court.

The Court noted that the civil dispute regarding the validity of the transfer deed of 2020 was pending before the lower Court.

The top court expressed shock at how the police did not undertake handwriting expert analysis to come to the conclusion whether the signatures were indeed forged in the transfer agreement or not.

"The police could be said to have made a mockery of the entire investigation…We are informed that as on date there is no report of the hand writing expert in regard to the genuineness of the signature of the complainant on the disputed sale deed..We fail to understand on what basis the police filed charge sheet against the appellant herein. If it is the case of the original complainant that a conspiracy was hatched, then in such circumstances why did the police drop the purchaser and the other individuals from the charge sheet stating that they are the bona fide purchasers of the plot in question for value without notice….This litigation highlights one of the most perfunctory investigations at the hands of the police," the Court said.

The Supreme Court thus quashed the criminal proceeding against the appellant since the civil dispute was pending before the trial court. 

[Read Judgment]