In Brief
A wife and her father were accused of forging the wife's estranged husband's signatures on their minor son's passport application. The husband, living in the UK, filed a criminal complaint after his wife filed a domestic cruelty case against him. The Supreme Court held that there was no prima facie case for cheating (Section 420) or forgery (Sections 468, 471) because obtaining a passport for a minor conferred no dishonest benefit on the wife and caused no loss to the husband. The State forensic report was inconclusive; the private report was unreliable without corroborative evidence. Since the dispute arose from marital discord and the child's right to travel was fundamental, the criminal prosecution was an abuse of process. The Court allowed the appeal and quashed the FIR.
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