The Apex Court has said that whenever there is a situation where a civil wrong is given a cloak of a criminal offence, the criminal proceedings should be quashed by the High Court to prevent the abuse of process of court.
A bench of Justice Abdul Nazeer and Justice JB Pardiwala ruled on Thursday that it is a possibility that a complaint disclosing civil transaction may also have a criminal texture, the High Court must ensure that substance of a civil nature is not given a cloak of a criminal offence.
The Court said that in such a situation, if civil remedy is available, the High Court should quashed the criminal proceeding to prevent abuse of process of court.
The ruling came, when a matter came before the bench where the complainant claimed that he had purchased a piece of land in 2018 and the appellant (his cousin) was one of the witnesses who signed the sale deed.
The complaint stated that original documents of the sale deed were with his cousin(the appellant)
In the year 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.
The complaint however said 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.
The complainant moved to the Top COurt after the High Court refused to quash the FIR under Section 482 CrPC against the appellant.
The Court noted that the civil dispute regarding the validity of the transfer deed of 2020 was pending before the lower Court.
The Apex court was surprised that how come the police not take handwriting expert analysis to come to the conclusion whether the signatures were indeed forged in the transfer agreement or not.
The Court said that the police could be said done the proper investigation. Court expressed its anger over the no use of the hand writing expert in regard to the genuineness of the signature
The Court said that 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 notic
The bench said that this litigation highlights one of the most perfunctory investigations at the hands of the police.
The criminal proceedings were quashed by the Supreme Court against the appellant since the civil dispute was pending before the trial court.