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Synopsis

The Bombay High Court, while refusing to quash an FIR, has recently observed that ignorance of the law is no excuse.

The division bench of the high court, comprising Justice AS Gadkari and Justice Neela Gokhale, was hearing a petition filed by a director of a pharmaceutical company seeking to quash an FIR for the export of banned chemicals.

The FIR was filed against the company in 2019, which they sought to be quashed on the grounds that the notification mandating an NOC from the authorities before exporting was not publicized, hence the petitioner was not aware of the notification.

The narcotics department filed the FIR after it was found that the company exported banned chemicals to Italy.

The additional public prosecutor contended that no NOC was obtained and that a complaint was also filed against the customs department for allowing the export without verification.

While refusing to quash the FIR, the division bench stated that ignorance of the law was no excuse.

‘Ignorance of law is no excuse for breaking it’ is one of the essential principles of jurisprudence. The rationale behind this principle is that if ignorance was an excuse, every person who is charged for any offence or involved in a crime would merely claim that he was unaware of the law in question in order to avoid liability, even though he was well aware of the consequences of breaking the law," the court said.

The high court in its order noted that if ignorance of law was allowed then the law enforcement machinery would come to a grinding halt if ignorance was accepted as a defence.

The bench said that it could also lead to mishandling of the law on the part of lawbreakers and this can never be the intention of the Legislature to protect the lawbreakers by providing a shield of ignorance.

Case title: Ajay Melwani vs State of Maharashtra