Point of Law : Legal representative who claims to be the only legal heir of the complainant and the losses suffered is transferred to the legal heir as well. [Para 11]

ORDER :

1. The petitioners are before this Court seeking quashment of entire proceedings in Crime No. 35 of 2020 arising out of a complaint registered on 06-04-2020 for offences punishable under Sections 406, 420, 120B and 34 of the IPC.

2. Brief facts that lead the petitioners to this Court in the subject petition, as borne out from the pleadings, are as follows:

2nd respondent/Mr. K.T. Rajashekar is the complainant. The petitioners are accused Nos. 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8 and 9 in the aforesaid crime. M/s Scania Commercial Vehicles India Private Limited/petitioner No. 1 a subsidiary of M/s Scania CV AB, a Sweden based holding Company belonging to Volkswagen group claims to have its presence in more than 100 countries and is also in the business of manufacturing commercial and luxury segment buses. Scania buses and coaches are said to have inspired people who travel throughout the country. As a part of many such sale deals several reputed buses and truck dealers are customers of Scania vehicles. The customers include Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation, Kerala State Road Transport Corporation, Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation, Telangana State Road Transport Corporation and several other State run Corporations. Besides, the State Transport Undertakings there are many more private transport agencies and fleet operators also have been associated with Scania. Respondent No. 2/complainant approaches the 1st petitioner in the capacity of Proprietor of SRS Travels, a business establishment in the field of tours and travels in the country and a fleet owner owning more than 4000 buses. The 2nd respondent appears to have evinced interest to procure Scania buses and by entering into an agreement purchases buses from the petitioners. The purchases take place in batches between 2014 and September 2018 and in a total of 77 buses were purchased by the 2nd respondent from Scania. After purchase of buses, the 2nd respondent, on the ground that the buses had some malfunctioning in them, registered a complaint on 5-04-2020 before the jurisdictional police on a further ground that the complainant was saddled with numerous problems in the operation and maintenance of vehicles which led to huge financial losses and the goodwill of his customers. It was also alleged that due to non-delivery of one particular vehicle, the complainant had sustained huge loss of Rs. 82,96,000/-. The registration of crime drives the petitioners to this Court in the subject petition. The petition having been entertained, an interim order of stay was granted by this Court on 26-06-2020. Therefore, the matter stood at the stage of investigation.

3. During the pendency of the subject petition, the 2nd respondent/complainant dies. An application is filed by the legal representative of the 2nd respondent, the daughter, to come on record and prosecute the case further. Objections are filed by the petitioners contending that the legal representative of an informant/complainant has no personal right to come on record. It is at that stage, the matter was taken up for its consideration. The only issue that falls for consideration at this juncture is, whether the legal heir of the 2nd respondent could be permitted to come on record stepping into the shoes of the complainant.

4. Heard Sri C.V. Nagesh, learned senior counsel appearing for the petitioners, Smt. K.P. Yashodha, learned High Court Government Pleader for respondent No. 1 and Sri Sandesh J. Chouta, learned senior counsel appearing for respondent No. 2.

5. The learned senior counsel representing the petitioners would contend that the complaint is registered by the 2nd respondent. The contract was entered into between the 2nd respondent and the 1st petitioner. SRS Travels was a proprietary concern and the alleged offences are privy only to the proprietor of SRS Travels; the applicant except producing the death certificate has not produced any document to show that she is the legal heir, assuming that she is the onl