Court Can Look Beyond FIR To Quash Criminal Proceedings When They Are Vexatious Or Frivolous In Nature, Instituted To Wreak Vengeance: Kerala High Court

Justice A. Badharudeen of the Kerala High Court has held that the Court can look beyond an FIR to quash the criminal proceedings when they are manifestly vexatious, frivolous or instituted with an ulterior motive for wreaking vengeance. The Court observed that when the complainant is motivated due to extraneous reasons, he can make sure that the FIR contains the necessary ingredients of the alleged offence.

“Therefore, it will not be just enough for the Court to look into the averments made in the FIR/ complaint alone for the purpose of ascertaining whether the necessary ingredient to constitute the alleged offence are disclosed or not. In frivolous or vexatious proceedings, the Court owes a duty to look into many other attending circumstances emerging from the record of the case and above averments and, if need be, with due care and circumspection try to read between the lines,” the Court said.

It observed that the High Court while exercising its inherent powers of jurisdiction need not restrict itself only to the stage of a case but can take into account the overall circumstances leading to the initiation/ registration of the case as well. It noted if the Court sees that the criminal proceedings are instituted maliciously, it is a good enough reason to quash the proceedings.

The Court observed that in this case, multiple FIRs had been filed over a period of time, pointing to wreaking vengeance out of a personal grudge.

The original case was that all the accused formed into an unlawful assembly, abused and threatened the complainant as her husband had not repaid some loans availed by him. It was alleged that the accused criminally trespassed into their property abused the complainant and threatened her and her husband with dire consequences. A case was filed against the accused under Sections 143, 147, 447, 294(b), 506(i) and 149 of the Indian Penal Code.

The accused claimed that this was a false complaint. It was stated that her husband had defaulted in the re-payment of a loan taken from Citizen Co-operative Society, Thrissur and the society official demanded that he pay the amount. The allegation was that the complaint was filed to wreak vengeance against the said demand.

The Court observed that since the case was filed as and when the society demanded repayment of the loan and no overt acts were even alleged, false implication to nullify the demand of loan amount was the intention to be drawn from the facts.

Accordingly, the High Court quashed the final report and all further proceedings in the Magistrate Court

Counsel for Petitioner: Advocates C. K. Anwar, K. S. Sumesh, Aswathi Vakkayil

Counsel for Respondents: Senior Public Prosecutor Renjit George

Case Title: Jitha Sanjay and Others v State of Kerala and Other

Case Number: Crl.M.C. 2016/ 2023

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw(Ker) 367

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