Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 – s.482 – Quashing – FIR inter alia u/ss.498A, 376, IPC and u/ss.3, 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, filed by Respondent No.2-wife against the appellants (husband and in-laws), primarily alleging rape by her brother-in-law – Charge-sheet filed, charges u/s.376, IPC were dropped – Appellants filed quashing petition, dismissed by High Court – Correctness:
Held: Initially, the FIR was lodged alleging rape, however, on investigation no charge-sheet was filed for prosecuting the accused for rape – No protest petition was filed by Respondent No.2 – FIR filed against all the family members about two months after the divorce petition was filed by husband, is vexatious and was instituted with an ulterior motive only because the husband had filed a divorce petition – Allegations against the accused persons were general and omnibus – Divorcing the allegations u/s.376 IPC, nothing remains in the FIR that was specifically alleged against the Appellants – Also, the parties have been granted divorce and the husband has also re-married – High Court undertook only a cursory analysis of the allegations made in the FIR – It failed to underscore any reasons for finding that the allegations made out the alleged offense – In the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case, FIR and chargesheet quashed. [Paras 12, 13, 14, 19] Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 – s.482 – Quashing – Duty of High Court – Discussed. [Paras 15-16]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Headnotes prepared by: Divya Pandey. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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