New Delhi: Criminal law cannot become a platform for initiation of vindictive proceedings to settle personal scores and vendettas, the Supreme Court on Monday said as it deprecated the recent trend where the judicial system is being misused by certain persons for their vested interests, PTI reported.
A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and R Mahadevan made the observations while quashing a criminal case for offences under IPC section 420 (cheating) and section 406 (criminal breach of trust) against a Guwahati-based businessman.
Observing that in recent years the machinery of criminal justice has been misused by certain persons for their vested interests and for achieving their oblique motives and agenda, the bench said, "Courts have therefore to be vigilant against such tendencies and ensure that acts of omission and commission having an adverse impact on the fabric of our society must be nipped in the bud." The top court, while perusing the complaint and the evidence, said that the ingredients for offences of cheating and criminal breach of trust are not made out against businessman Inder Chand Bagri, and complainant Jagadish Prasad Bagri has other remedies under civil law to set aside the sale deed of the disputed property and claim damages for violation of his contractual rights.
"Criminal law ought not to become a platform for initiation of vindictive proceedings to settle personal scores and vendettas," the bench said, adding that Inder Chand Bagri could not be attributed any mens rea and therefore, the allegations levelled by the prosecution against him are unsustainable.
Observing that there is a distinction between criminal breach of trust and cheating, the bench said that for cheating, criminal intention is necessary at the time of making a false or misleading representation, that is, since inception and in criminal breach of trust, mere proof of entrustment is sufficient.