FIR quashed due to indications of ulterior motives and bad faith behind the complaint, emphasizing courts' duty to assess overall circumstances in criminal proceedings.

JUDGMENT :

SANJAY KAROL, J.

1. Leave Granted.

2. Under challenge in this appeal is a judgment and order dated 27th January 2025 passed in Misc. Criminal Case No. 48079 of 2023 by the High Court of Madhya Pradesh at Jabalpur, titled analogously where the High Court has refused to exercise its powers under Section 528 of Bhartiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023¹ [For short ‘ BNSS 2023’] seeking quashing of the First Information Report² [For short ‘FIR’] and the charge-sheet.³ [Dated 07th August 2023, P.S. Adhartaal bearing no. 0934/2023 under Sections 376 and 376 (2)(n) IPC]

3. The brief facts leading to the impugned judgment are that the complainant, Respondent No. 2 herein was a Computer Operator employed at Suhagi Municipal Corporation where the appellant-accused was working as Assistant Revenue Inspector and in the course of regular interactions they became friendly with one another and such friendship eventually progressed further. It is important to note here that the complainant at an earlier point in time was married and had also begotten a son from the wedlock. This friendship and eventual physical intimacy turned sour which led to the instant proceedings.

4. The allegation levelled by the complainant against the Appellant-accused is that when the latter proposed the possibility of taking their friendship further, she had clearly stated that she was married and had a son to which he agreed or in other words, the implications of which he understood and also said that they would, at one point in future, be joined in matrimony. It is then alleged that on 15th March 2023 the Appellant-accused called the complainant to his residence after office hours and forced intimate relations with her. When she resisted/refused he assured her of marriage and asked her not to worry. This situation continued till 10th April 2023. A few days thereafter, upon being asked as to why they are yet to get married, the complainant alleges that the Appellant-accused refused and asked her to marry someone else. Terming this to be rape on pretext of marriage, the complainant filed the subject FIR.

5. Certain other facts are also required to be taken note of. The relationship having soured, the Appellant-accused filed a complaint under Section 155 Cr.P.C. [Code of Criminal Procedure 1973] on 24th April 2023 before P.S. Adhartaal District-Jabalpur alleging that the complainant with whom he does not want any relationship or dealing, repeatedly threatened him saying that she would kill herself and even on the day of filing of the said complaint, she came to his residence asking him to speak with her, hurled abuses and also consumed rat poison. Subsequently, the Appellant-accused also lodged a complaint with the Municipal Commissioner, Jabalpur dated 05th July 2023 detailing the alleged harassment by the complainant to the effect of false implication in cases and stating that if the harassment continues, he will be forced to commit suicide. A similar complaint was also submitted to the Divisional Officer, Nagar Nigam.

6. As a consequence of the said representation, the complainant was issued a show cause notice dated 6th July 2023 where she was asked to rectify her behaviour and submit a clarification against the allegations within a period of 24 hours. It was stated therein that should she not furnish such a clarification, she would be relieved of employment. The Appellant-accused also submitted a representation to the Superintendent of Police, Jabalpur, in similar terms as the representations referred to in the preceding paragraph.

7. It is to be noted that the FIR and charge-sheet which are the subject matter of the instant proceedings, are developments subsequent to the representations made by the Appellant-ac