Case Of Fabrication of Documents Can't Be Quashed Saying There Is No Revenue Loss To State: Supreme Court

The bench of Justices SK Kaul and MM Sundresh was considering a criminal appeal assailing Andhra Pradesh High Court's order dated November 9, 2011.

While setting aside the order, the bench in Missu Naseem & Anr. V. The State Of Andhra Pradesh & Ors. said,

"We find the aforesaid reasoning totally unsustainable. The effect of this reasoning is that fabrication of documents is permissible if it does not cause loss to the revenue! We have thus no hesitation in coming to the conclusion that the impugned order must go and is consequently set aside."

Factual Background

The State had registered Crime in respect of a land issue alleging against the private respondents that they had submitted fake and fabricated house tax books and tax receipts to the Urban Land Ceiling Department to grab valuable Government land. The private respondents thereafter filed a petition before the High Court u/s 482 of the Cr.P.C. seeking quashing of the FIR dated March 6, 2011.

The High Court of Andhra Pradesh while quashing the FIR on November 9, 2011 said,

"As rightly contended by the learned counsel for the petitioners, a perusal of Para 10 of the affidavit clearly indicates that there is no revenue loss to the Government, as the highest slab rate was collected by the Government. Even assuming for a moment that the petitioners produced fake and fabricated documents, that has not caused any wrongful loss to the Government. Hence, this Court is of the view that a registration of crime and conducting investigation are abuse of process of law and, hence, the proceedings in the crime are liable to be quashed", High Court had observed.

The Supreme Court disapproved this approach of the High Court and termed it "unusual".

The Top Court also said that although no purpose would be served in remitting the matter back to the High Court or for restarting the investigation in view of passage of time but remarked that since the order was quashed, private respondents could not take advantage of the same as clean chit.

"We may notice that the FIR was registered on 06.03.2011. More than a decade has passed. The State in its wisdom has chosen to accept the order though in the counter affidavit they now seek to support the FIR. In our view, obviously the State seems not to be perturbed with the order. The appellants are perturbed by the order because that is sought was utilized in the civil proceedings to use it as some kind of clean chit to the private respondents. The latter aspect cannot be permissible and for that reason also we are required to hold that the impugned order is not sustainable. We are thus of the view that no purpose will be served in remitting the matter back to the High Court or for restarting the investigation in view of the passage of time," the bench said.

Case Title: Missu Naseem & Anr. V. The State Of Andhra Pradesh & Ors.| Criminal Appeal No. 160/ 2022

Coram: Justices SK Kaul and MM Sundresh

Citation : 2022 LiveLaw (SC) 132