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TMI Blog2023 (5) TMI 1403X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... and quite frankly, unexplained delay of over 60 years in initiating dispute with regard to the ownership of the land in question, and the criminal case has been lodged only after failure to obtain relief in the civil suits, coupled with denial of relief in the interim therein to the respondent no.2/her family members. It is evident that resort was now being had to criminal proceedings which, in the considered opinion of this Court, is with ulterior motives, for oblique reasons and is a clear case of vengeance. This Court would indicate that the officers, who institute an FIR, based on any complaint, are duty- bound to be vigilant before invoking any provision of a very stringent statute, like the SC/ST Act, which imposes serious penal consequences on the concerned accused. The officer has to be satisfied that the provisions he seeks to invoke prima facie apply to the case at hand. It is clarified that remarks, in no manner, are to dilute the applicability of special/stringent statutes, but only to remind the police not to mechanically apply the law, dehors reference to the factual position. The Court finds that the High Court fell in error in not invoking its wholesome power under ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... at Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike (hereinafter referred to as the BBMP ), before construction commenced. 6. It transpires that one Venkatesh, son of Late Bylappa, was the owner of old Survey Number 83 and his property had been assigned new Survey Numbers 80/1 and 80/3, and due to such change, with the new survey numbers with regard to the land in question being Survey Number 83, the said Venkatesh claimed title over land under the new Survey Number 83. This resulted in prolonged civil litigation which included an application before the Special Tehsildar; appeal before the Assistant Commissioner, Bangalore, North SubDivision, and; Appeal before the Special Deputy Commissioner all of which went against Venkatesh. 7. But that is not all. There were also two suits one filed by the legitimate land-owners, which was a suit for injunction, and one (which we have no hesitation in terming so) a frivolous suit filed by Venkatesh. Since Venkatesh s suit did not yield any relief, he, along with others, approached the High Court with an appeal, which was also dismissed. In addition to this, Venkatesh also made an application before the Additional Director, Town Planning, BBMP and got the sanctioned ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ly dismissed on 23.02.2021, leading to the institution of the instant appeal. SUBMISSIONS BY THE APPELLANT: 11. Learned senior counsel for the appellant submitted that firstly, the matter is purely civil in nature as it raises questions relating to title of the land on which GMID had entered into a JDA and constructed apartments after following the due procedure in law. 12. It was submitted that not one but multiple authorities, including revenue authorities, the BBMP, etc. had given requisite permission/s for construction. Moreover, it was submitted that initial civil litigation was also decided in favour of the original land-owners, with whom GMID had signed the JDA. 13. The complaint resulting into the FIR, submitted learned counsel, was at the behest of Venkatesh, who, mischievously, taking advantage of the similarity in the old survey number of his land with the new survey number of the land involved herein, had blatantly abused the process of the court. It was submitted that even when the initial written complaint was filed before the police, GMID was arrayed as Accused No. 19, but in the consequent FIR, the appellant was made party thereto, by naming him as the Accused No.18 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... son(s), with whom the appellant had inked the JDA, had purchased the subject-property in 1954-1955 and thereafter, they got occupancy rights of the land on 09.07.1961, and only in 2017, the present criminal dispute had been engineered by the complainant and/or her family members, noted hereinabove. SUBMISSIONS OF RESPONDENT NO. 2/COMPLAINANT: 19. Learned counsel for the complainant/respondent no. 2 submitted that the appeal is misconceived as the police was in the midst of investigation which should be allowed to be completed. It was submitted that the complainant belongs to the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes category and is protected thereunder. Learned counsel supported the invocation of the provisions of the SC/ST Act in the FIR. It was submitted that the additional documents, sought to be made part of the present record, were not part of the pleadings before the High Court and thus, may not be looked into. It was contended that it would amount to introduction of new fact(s) in this case. It was contended that Section 482 of the Code requires the court only to see, whether from the complaint, any cognizable offence is made out, which in the present case is made out. 20. It wa ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hen onwards, no dispute was raised by any person before any authority and only after the GMID entered into the JDA with the original land-owners in the year 2009, obtained all clearances from the authorities in their favour, started the construction work and built apartments numbering more than 400, sold them to the buyers/allottees in the year 2017, did the present dispute arise. This itself indicates a lack of bonafide. We have mused as to why the complainant and her family members, if the land was theirs, would sit by and watch on as fence-sitters for a long period of time. 25. Moreover, when one civil litigation had attained finality with no relief granted to the relatives of the complainant, another civil suit was filed in the year 2016 and therein as well, when no interim order could be secured by the complainant/her family members, the present complaint has been registered, resulting in the FIR. We are constrained to state that the malafide appears writ large from the aforenoted sequence of events. 26. Although we are not for verbosity in our judgments, a slightly detailed survey of the judicial precedents is in order. In State of Haryana v Bhajan Lal, 1992 Supp (1) SCC 335, ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of the aggrieved party. (7) Where a criminal proceeding is manifestly attended with mala fide and/or where the proceeding is maliciously instituted with an ulterior motive for wreaking vengeance on the accused and with a view to spite him due to private and personal grudge. 103. We also give a note of caution to the effect that the power of quashing a criminal proceeding should be exercised very sparingly and with circumspection and that too in the rarest of rare cases; that the court will not be justified in embarking upon an enquiry as to the reliability or genuineness or otherwise of the allegations made in the FIR or the complaint and that the extraordinary or inherent powers do not confer an arbitrary jurisdiction on the court to act according to its whim or caprice. (emphasis supplied) 27. This Court, in S W Palanitkar v State of Bihar, (2002) 1 SCC 24, held: whereas while exercising power under Section 482 CrPC the High Court has to look at the object and purpose for which such power is conferred on it under the said provision. Exercise of inherent power is available to the High Court to give effect to any order under CrPC, or to prevent abuse of the process of any court or ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s under the section, the court does not function as a court of appeal or revision. Inherent jurisdiction under the section though wide has to be exercised sparingly, carefully and with caution and only when such exercise is justified by the tests specifically laid down in the section itself. It is to be exercised ex debito justitiae to do real and substantial justice for the administration of which alone courts exist. Authority of the court exists for advancement of justice and if any attempt is made to abuse that authority so as to produce injustice, the court has power to prevent abuse. It would be an abuse of process of the court to allow any action which would result in injustice and prevent promotion of justice. In exercise of the powers court would be justified to quash any proceeding if it finds that initiation/continuance of it amounts to abuse of the process of court or quashing of these proceedings would otherwise serve the ends of justice. When no offence is disclosed by the complaint, the court may examine the question of fact. When a complaint is sought to be quashed, it is permissible to look into the materials to assess what the complainant has alleged and whether an ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Mahendra K C v State of Karnataka, 2021 SCC OnLine SC 1021, this Court stated: 23. the High Court while exercising its power under Section 482 of the CrPC to quash the FIR instituted against the second respondent-accused should have applied the following two tests : i) whether the allegations made in the complaint, prima facie constitute an offence; and ii) whether the allegations are so improbable that a prudent man would not arrive at the conclusion that there is sufficient ground to proceed with the complaint. 33. We are equally mindful of Arnab Manoranjan Goswami v State of Maharashtra, (2021) 2 SCC 427, where at Paragraph 68, it was stated that The other end of the spectrum is equally important: the recognition by Section 482 of the power inhering in the High Court to prevent the abuse of process or to secure the ends of justice is a valuable safeguard for protecting liberty. We are at one with this comment. A detailed exposition of the law is also forthcoming in Neeharika Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. v State of Maharashtra, 2021 SCC OnLine SC 315, which we have factored into, while adjudicating the instant lis. 34. Insofar and inasmuch as interference in cases involving the SC/S ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... le the propositions laid down therein are not disputed, they do not prejudice the version of the present appellant. Tapan Kumar Singh (supra) and Naresh (supra) indicate that the FIR need not be a detailed one, as it is only to initiate the investigative process and the police should ordinarily be allowed to investigate. This is the general rule, but not a fetter on this Court or the High Court in an appropriate case. 36. What is evincible from the extant case-law is that this Court has been consistent in interfering in such matters where purely civil disputes, more often than not, relating to land and/or money are given the colour of criminality, only for the purposes of exerting extra-judicial pressure on the party concerned, which, we reiterate, is nothing but abuse of the process of the court. In the present case, there is a huge, and quite frankly, unexplained delay of over 60 years in initiating dispute with regard to the ownership of the land in question, and the criminal case has been lodged only after failure to obtain relief in the civil suits, coupled with denial of relief in the interim therein to the respondent no.2/her family members. It is evident that resort was now ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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