TMI Blog1960 (3) TMI 45X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e police. After hearing arguments the learned Magistrate ordered that the appellant s complaint should stand adjourned. Thereupon the appellant moved the Punjab High Court under s. 561 -A of the Code of Criminal Procedure for quashing the proceedings initiated by the First Information Report in question. Pending the hearing of the said petition in the said High Court the police report was submitted under s. 173 of the Code on July 25, 1959. Subsequently, on September 10, 1959, Mr. Justice Capoor heard the appellant s petition and held that no case had been made out for quashing the proceedings under s.561-A. In the result the petition was dismissed. It is against this order that the appellant has come to this Court by special leave, The material facts leading to the proceedings against the appellant lie within a very narrow compass. It appears that in January 1957 the mother-in-law of the appellant and his wife entered into an agreement with the owners of certain lands in village Mohammadpur Munirka to purchase lands at ₹ 5 per sq. yd. Earnest money was accordingly paid to the vendors and it was agreed that the sale had to be completed by April 13, 1957; by consent this pe ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... que has been cashed. Subsequently a draft of the sale deed was sent by the appellant to Mr. Sethi in the beginning of March 1958 and on March 6, 1958, a further sum of ₹ 10,000 was paid by cheque. The draft was duly returned to the appellant with a covering letter in which Mr. Sethi stated that he would have liked to add one clause to the deed to the effect that in the event of the authorities not accepting the sale for the purpose of allotment, the amount of ₹ 20,000 would be refunded to him; and he expressed, the hope that even if the said clause was not included in the document the appellant would accept it. The sale deed in favour of Mr. Sethi was registered on March 21, 1958. It is this transaction which has given rise to the First Information Report in question. Broadly stated the First Information Report is based on four material allegations about fraudulent misrepresentation. It is alleged that the appellant fraudulently misrepresented to Mr. Sethi that the land had been purchased at ₹ 10 per sq. yd.; that the appellant fraudulently concealed from Mr. Sethi the pendency of the proceedings before the Land Acquisition Collector, Delhi, and of the acquisit ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e proceedings. There may be cases where it may be possible for the High Court to take the view that the institution or continuance of criminal proceedings against an accused person may amount to the abuse of the process of the court or that the quashing of the impugned proceedings would secure the ends of justice. If the criminal proceeding in question is in respect of an offence alleged to have been committed by an accused person and it manifestly appears that there is a legal bar against the institution or continuance of the said proceeding the High Court would be justified in quashing the proceeding on that ground. Absence of the requisite sanction may, for instance, furnish cases under this category. Cases may also arise where the a11egations in the First Information Report or the complaint, even if they are taken at their face value and accepted in their entirety, do not constitute the offence alleged; in such cases no question of appreciating evidence arises; it is a matter merely of looking at the complaint or the First Information Report to decide whether the offence alleged is disclosed or not. In such cases it would be legitimate for the High Court to hold that it would b ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... arned judge elaborately considered all the evidence on which the prosecution relied and came to the conclusion that the proceedings taken against Jaiswal and his co-accused should be quashed. It is, however, clear from the judgment that the learned judge was very much impressed by the fact that the police had reported that there was no case or at the most only a technical offence against Jaiswal but the district magistrate had interfered with the statutory duty of the police and had directed the police officer concerned to prosecute him. On these facts the learned judge was inclined to take the view that there was a violation of the fundamental right guaranteed to Jaiswal under Art. 21 of the Constitution. Besides, in the opinion of the learned judge the evidence on which the prosecution relied showed that the essential ingredients of the offence charged were missing and the very essentials were non-existent . It is on these findings that the criminal proceedings against Jaiswal were quashed. It is unnecessary for us to consider .whether the fundamental right guaranteed under Art. 21 had really been contravened or not. We have merely referred to the relevant findings recorded by ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... in the mind of the appellant that the object of the delay was to keep the sword hanging over his head as long as possible. It is perhaps likely that the appellant being the senior-most Commissioner in the punjab the investigating authorities may have been cautious and circumspect in taking further steps on the First Information Report; but we are satisfied that this explanation cannot account for the inordinate delay made in submitting the report under s. 173. It is of utmost importance that investigation into criminal offences must always be free from any objectionable features or infirmities which may legitimately lead to the grievance of the accused that the work of investigation is carried on unfairly or with any ulterior motive. Even so it is difficult to see how this conduct on the part of the police officers can materially assist the appellant in his prayer that the proceedings which have now reached the criminal court should be quashed. We must, therefore, now proceed to consider the appellant s case that the evidence on record is demonstrably against the allegation of Mr. Sethi that he was induced by the appellant to part with ₹ 20,000 as a result of the several ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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