In Brief
The Supreme Court quashed criminal proceedings against purchasers in a property dispute involving allegations of cheating and forgery relating to a power of attorney and sale deeds. The Court held that the complaint and charge sheet failed to disclose the essential ingredients of any criminal offence: there was no evidence of deception or dishonest inducement to the complainant, who was neither party to the sale deeds nor a member of the relevant society. The proceeding, initiated 12 years after the registered sale deeds were executed, was deemed an abuse of process and harassment of the purchaser. The investigation was fatally flawed, having failed to examine the alleged executant of the disputed power of attorney. The Court emphasised that such essentially civil property disputes should not be clothed in criminal garb as weapons of harassment.
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