Kapil Agarwal and others vs Sanjay Sharma and others

Bench: 2 — Dr. Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud, M.R. Shah

In Brief

Varun Beverages Ltd terminated a distributorship agreement with Sanjay Sharma over alleged non-payment of dues. The company filed a Section 138 Negotiable Instruments Act complaint after a cheque bounced. Sharma then applied under Section 156(3) CrPC seeking an FIR for misappropriation. The Magistrate treated it as a complaint case instead. Two years later, Sharma filed a fresh FIR with identical allegations. The Supreme Court held that while Section 210 CrPC permits parallel complaint and police investigations, filing a second FIR with the same allegations after the first application was declined constitutes abuse of process and harassment. The Court quashed the FIR to prevent misuse of criminal law in a commercial dispute.

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Criminal Procedure Abuse of Process Misappropriation Cheating Breach of Trust Dishonour of Cheque Distributorship Dispute Negotiable Instruments Act

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