Section 106 IEA Cannot Fill the Gaps in a Shaky Prosecution Case: Rajasthan High Court Rebukes Investigative Lapses in Murder Trial Accident Claim | Ration Card Cannot Decide a Man’s Age: Punjab & Haryana High Court Forgery in Wife’s Name and Defiance of Court Orders Amount to Contempt: Kerala High Court Limitation | Selectively Active Litigant Cannot Seek Liberal Condonation: Delhi High Court Refuses to Revive 1589 Days’ Delay Mere Unnatural Death Within Seven Months Is Not Dowry Death: Delhi High Court Refuses to Reverse Acquittal in Ruby Hanging Case A Partition Suit Is a Suit for Land: Bombay High Court Rejects Plaint for Want of Clause XII Leave Senior Citizens Act Cannot Be A Shortcut To Reclaim Property Registered In Wife's Name: Bombay High Court State Bound By Its Concession; More Meritorious Candidates Cannot Be Denied Appointment: Supreme Court Balances Equity In Rajasthan Grade III Teacher Recruitment Penalty For Delayed Compensation Is The Employer's Personal Fault — Insurance Company Cannot Be Made To Pay For The Employer's Own Default: Supreme Court Bail Cannot Be a Mechanical Exercise in Murder and Atrocities Cases: Supreme Court Cancels Bail Granted on ‘Extraneous Considerations’ Even A Lathi Becomes A Murder Weapon When Repeatedly Aimed At The Head With Bone-Deep Force: Supreme Court Applies The Virsa Singh Test To Demolish The Defence That Lathis Are Not Deadly Weapons Section 149 IPC While Demanding Proof Of Individual Fatal Blow Runs Contrary To The Very Principle Of Vicarious Liability: Supreme Court Statement Under Section 108 Is Substantive Evidence If Voluntary:  Supreme Court Upholds Conviction In Smuggling Case U.P. Anti-Conversion Act Does Not Apply To Interfaith Live-In Relationships Unless Actual Conversion Is Intended: Allahabad High Court Section 480(6) BNSS | If Trial Is Not Concluded Within Sixty Days… Such Person Shall Be Released On Bail: MP High Court Bombay High Court Lifts Stay on Banks’ Fraud Proceedings Against Anil Ambani Preventive Detention Cannot Survive Without Supplying Relied Upon Documents: Karnataka High Court Reasserts Article 22(5) Safeguards Court Subordinate Who Attended Duty Drunk, Abused Advocates & Misbehaved With Judge's Family Gets No Mercy: Andhra Pradesh High Court Upholds Removal From Service XXXVII Rule 3 CPC | Claim Of 24% Interest Without Prima Facie Contract Cannot Be Blindly Accepted In Summary Proceedings : Madras High Court On Summary Suit Defence Re-Testing Under NDPS Act Cannot Be a Tool to Overcome an Adverse Lab Report: J&K High Court Quashes Charge-Sheet After First Report Ruled Out Heroin Shocking And Disturbing That Cows Died Due To Starvation: Kerala High Court Pulls Up Travancore Devaswom Board Over Neglect Of Temple Gosala Promoter Cannot Retain Ownership By Merely Using The Word ‘Lease’: Bombay High Court Upholds Ownership Deemed Conveyance Under MOFA

"QUASHING" Digest

Criminal Law - Forgery – Wills – Civil Dispute Converted into Criminal Case – Criminal complaint filed alleging will dated 17.3.2015 is forged and used to claim property – Discharge sought on ground that genuineness of both wills (dated 17.3.2015 and 11.1.2017) already sub judice in civil suit filed in 2017 – FIR filed in 2019 as retaliatory measure – Held: Alle...

Criminal Law – Quashing of FIR – Direction for Time-bound Investigation and Protection from Arrest – Legality and Justification of High Court's Order – High Court dismissed quashing petitions filed by three accused (Mohd. Arshad Khan, Sanjay Kapoor, Muhammad Zaid Khan) but simultaneously granted protection from arrest and directed investigation to be concluded within 90...

Criminal Law – Quashing of FIR – Civil Dispute Given Criminal Colour – Appellant, a former Director of lessee company, was implicated in FIR under Sections 406 and 420 IPC for alleged non-payment of rent and unauthorised retention of leased premises – Supreme Court held that the dispute arose from breach of lease agreement and had been subject to arbitration, where an award...

Criminal Law – Quashing of Complaint – Jurisdiction under Section 482 CrPC – High Court quashed complaint under Section 138 N.I. Act holding that the cheque was not issued for any debt or liability – Held: The High Court exceeded its jurisdiction by examining disputed facts at pre-trial stage and conducting a roving enquiry into the existence of debt/liability – Compl...

Criminal Law – Quashing of FIR – Abuse of Process – Appellant, former Minister and Chairman of Committee for Regularisation of Unauthorised Occupation, challenged FIR registered by Anti-Corruption Bureau alleging illegal grant of government land – Earlier complaints on same allegations investigated twice by Lokayukta and closed – FIR registered after preliminary inqui...

Criminal Law – Quashing of FIR – Compromise – Rash and Negligent Act Causing Death – FIR registered under Sections 281, 125(a) and 106 BNS – Petitioner sought quashing on the basis of compromise with complainant – Held: Offence under Section 106 BNS is not private in nature but a crime against society – FIR cannot be quashed merely on the basis of compromi...

Criminal Law – Quashing of FIR - Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 – Section 13(1)(d) – Allegation of Criminal Misconduct – Revenue officials alleged to have illegally compounded offences by collecting lesser amounts – Held: In absence of a prescribed minimum compounding fee during the relevant period, levy of a lesser amount by itself does not constitute criminal mi...

Factual Background – Complaints were made by the petitioner under Sections 498A and 406 IPC against her husband and in-laws, alleging severe demands for dowry and subsequent physical and mental cruelty after her marriage in 1998 – The FIR was filed in December 2002 and charge-sheet filed in July 2004 – Magistrate took cognizance on the same day the charge-sheet was filed [Paras 2...

Criminal Law – Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 – Section 3(1)(s) – "Place within public view" – Allegations that Appellants hurled caste-based abuses at the complainant inside her house – Held: To constitute an offence under Section 3(1)(s), the place must be open where members of the public can witness or hear ...

Criminal Law – Quashing of FIR – Blanket Protection from Arrest – High Court, while refusing to quash FIR under Article 226, granted protection from arrest till filing of charge sheet – Held: Self-contradictory and impermissible – Once FIR is not quashed, High Court cannot mechanically grant anticipatory-bail-like protection in writ jurisdiction – Such direction...