In Brief
Two employees of Juniper Networks India were accused of harassment and assault against a departing colleague who was forced to resign. A chargesheet was filed alleging offences including causing hurt, criminal intimidation, insult, and modesty outrage under the IPC. The Supreme Court quashed the chargesheet and proceedings, holding that the mere allegation of \"filthy language\" without specific words or context was insufficient to establish criminal charges. The threat to terminate employment constituted a civil dispute, not criminal intimidation. Material discrepancies between the complaint and chargesheet, combined with transformation of a labour dispute into criminal proceedings to pressure settlement, amounted to abuse of legal process warranting quashing of all proceedings.
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