Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023 - Section 528 - Quashing of FIR - Scope of interference - Rice millers challenged FIRs alleging shortage of paddy stocks - Held - At the quashing stage the High Court must not act as a trial court by weighing evidence or testing the truth of allegations - The only test is whether the allegations taken at face value prima facie make out the ingredients of the...
Criminal Law - Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 - Section 482 - Quashing of criminal proceedings - Principles and Guidelines - Bhajan Lal precedent - Held - High Court failed to exercise inherent power to quash proceedings when allegations even if taken at face value do not constitute any offence - [Paras 10-20]
Indian Penal Code 1860 - Sections 405 and 406 - Criminal Breach of Trust - Entrustme...
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, Sections 3(1)(r) and 3(1)(s) - Atrocities - Place within public view - Essential ingredients - Appellants were charged for hurling casteist slurs inside a residential house - Held, the requirement that the incident must occur in "a place within public view" is a sine qua non for constituting offences under Sectio...
Criminal Law - Negotiable Instruments Act 1881 - Section 138 - Quashing of Proceedings - Non-signatory Spouse - Liability under Section 138 is strictly in personam requiring a mandatory identity-link between the account holder, the drawer, and the signatory - Petitioner being a total stranger to the account and non-signatory to the instrument cannot be prosecuted - Held - To compel a non-signatory...
Quashing of Criminal Proceedings – Compromise – Non-Compoundable Offences – Corporate Accused – Petitioner/A9, Mahindra World City Developers Limited, faced trial before the Judicial Magistrate No. II, Chengalpet in C.C. No. 251 of 2020 for offences under Sections 120(b), 465, 468 and 471 IPC, being the end-purchaser in an alleged chain of forged title documents in respect ...
Criminal Law - Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, Section 384 - Interpretation of Phrase - Before rising of the Court on the same day - Petitioners contended that cognizance taken at 7:30 p.m. was beyond regular court hours and thus without jurisdiction - Held, a Court is not a time-clock institution; the expression "before rising of the Court" refers to the actual sitting and adj...
Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, Section 528 - Inherent Powers of High Court - Maintainability vs. Alternative Remedy - Preliminary objection by State that petitioner has alternative remedy of seeking discharge before Trial Court. Held, existence of alternative remedy is not an absolute bar to the exercise of jurisdiction under Section 528 BNSS if continuation of proceedings amounts to an...
Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, Section 483 - Bail - NDPS Act - Custodial necessity - Petitioner arrayed as an accomplice based on information from co-accused Jawan Singh - No recovery of contraband effected from the petitioner - Co-accused and other similarly placed persons already granted bail by a Coordinate Bench - Investigation complete and charge sheet filed - Held, looking at the period...
Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025 – Section 21 – Quashing of Charge Sheet – Religious Persecution Exemption – Petitioner, a Hindu woman from Khulna, Bangladesh, entered India on 07.12.2024 through Ghojadanga Land Border with valid passport and VISA valid till 06.01.2025 – Married an Indian citizen in December 2024 – On 29.12.2025, implicated in Bongaon P.S. C...
Criminal Law – Rape – Promise of Marriage – Quashment of Proceedings – Appellant charged under Sections 376(2)(n), 377 and 506 IPC on allegations that he established physical relationship with complainant under false promise of marriage – Both parties were previously married; complainant had posted matrimonial advertisement even before her divorce was finalised &ndash...