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SC bench said it is a settled law, as has been held by this Court in the case of Joseph 'Salvaraj A Vs State of Gujarat and Others' (2011), that merely filing of the charge-sheet cannot be a ground for non-suiting a party in a petition under Section 482 CrPC
The Supreme Court has said that filing of the charge sheet is no ground to reject a plea for quashing a criminal case sought through an application under Section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
A bench of Justices B R Gavai and Sandeep Mehta said whether the case is a fit case for quashing of the proceedings on the parameters laid down by this court in various judgments is required to be examined by the court, irrespective of filing of the charge-sheet or not.
"It is a settled law, as has been held by this Court in the case of Joseph 'Salvaraj A Vs State of Gujarat and Others' (2011), that merely filing of the charge-sheet cannot be a ground for non-suiting a party in a petition under Section 482 CrPC," the bench said.
Appellant Meegada Venkatakrishna challenged the validity of the order of March 5, 2021 by the single judge bench of the Telangana High Court which rejected his application filed under Section 482 of the CrPC.
He approached the High Court for quashing of the proceedings on the ground that the case was a family dispute between the appellant on the one side and his mother and sister on the other side.
Though the dispute was purely of a civil nature, it was given a criminal colour only in order to harass the appellant herein, he contended.
The bench noted the High Court has non-suited the appellant herein on the ground that the charge-sheet was filed and as such the application under Section 482 CrPC could not be decided.
In the instant case, the bench noted that the charge-sheet came to be filed while an interim order granting stay of the proceedings was in operation.
"On this short ground, we are inclined to allow this appeal," the bench said, while setting aside the judgment and the order.
The court restored the criminal petition to the file of the High Court and asked it to decide the matter on its own merits as expeditiously as possible.
"Needless to state that until further orders, the proceedings before the Trial Court shall stand stayed," the court ordered.
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