The Supreme Court has set aside an order of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, stating that production of fake and fabricated documents was not permissible under any circumstances, even if the same did not cause any wrongful loss to the Government.
A Division Bench of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M.M. Sundresh gave the verdict on a petition challenging an order of the Andhra Pradesh High Court.
In 2011, the High Court had quashed an FIR against some people, observing that the production of fake and fabricated documents has not caused any wrongful loss of revenue to the government.
As per the case, a First Information Report (FIR) was registered in respect to a land issue, alleging that the private respondents had submitted fake and fabricated house tax book and tax receipts to the Urban Land Ceiling Department, to grab a valuable government land.
The respondents moved the Andhra Pradesh High Court under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for quashing the case, which was accepted.
However, the Apex Court held that the reasoning given by the High Court was totally unsustainable.
Senior Advocate Sidharth Luthra, Advocate-on-Record Praseena Elizabeth, advocates S Udaya Kumar Sagar, Bina Madhavan, Balaji Varma, Akansha Mehra, Rao Vishwaja, Anmol Kheta, Lakshay Mehta and Rao Vishwaja appeared for the appellants.
Advocates-on-Record Mahfooz Ahsan Nazki, Ananga Bhattacharya, advocates Polanki Gowtham, Shaik Mohamad Haneef, T Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy, KV Girish Chowdary and Rajeshwari Mukherjee appeared for the respondents.