Criminal charges in a civil dispute is an abuse of criminal justice : Supreme court.
TITLE : Dinesh Gupta v The state of Uttar Pradesh
CORAM : Hon’ble Justice Vikram Nath and Hon’ble justice Rajesh Bindal
DATE : 11th January 2024
CITATION : WP No. 203 Of 2024
FACTS
A company, namely Global Capital filed an FIR against the appellants who are promoters of other companies. The company alleged that there should be an extension of short term loans of Rs. 5,16,00,000 and Rs. 11,29,59,000 to the promoter companies. The loan was then converted into debt equity which promised high returns from the real estate business. The company also acquired shares from the promoting companies. The promoting companies had plans of merging and as a result the company shareholding reduced considerably. The company also did not receive any notice of the amalgamation. When the company asked to return the loan amount, deliberate ignorance was done by the promoter’s company upon which the company filed an FIR. After investigation, the police found that a case was made out against the accused under Sections 420, 467 and 120-B of the IPC
ISSUES
Whether the Criminal charges against the appellant is valid?
JUDGEMENT
The court held that the money transaction was plain and simple between the corporates. The short term loan was advanced for a period of one year, which was not paid back. No other measures were taken by the complainant before filing the FIR.
The court stated that :
The entire factual matrix and the time lines clearly reflects that the complainant deliberately and unnecessarily has caused substantial delay and had been waiting for opportune moment for initiating false and frivolous litigation.
In furtherance, it held that hearing the proceedings would be a abuse of process of court and it is a clear case of malicious prosecution and quashed the FIR.
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Written by- Sanjana Ravichandran