Notices/Processes – Non-issuance of, by the court – Violation of natural justice – Criminal application by the appellants seeking quashing of complaint filed against them – High Court dismissed the application, and was not even inclined to issue notice to the respondents – Correctness:
Held: If the Division Bench of the High Court was not inclined to even issue notice to the respondents, then reasons ought to have been assigned for that purpose, or in the alternative, notice should have been issued to the respondents and after giving a fair opportunity to both sides, dismissed the complaint on merits – In the absence of any of the options being exercised by the Division Bench of the High Court, impugned order is in violation of the principles of natural justice inasmuch as no reason can be gathered as to why the High Court was not inclined to even issue notice to respondents in the application filed by the appellants seeking quashing of the FIR registered against the appellants – Impugned order set aside and matter remanded to the High Court. [Paras 6, 7]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Headnotes prepared by: Nidhi Jain. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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