The main legal point established in the judgment is that allegations of non-payment of rent did not constitute criminal offences under the Indian Penal Code.

JUDGMENT

1. Heard.

2. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. Heard finally by consent of the learned counsel appearing for the parties.

3. Although, it has been argued on behalf of the State, by the learned APP and also on behalf of respondent no.2, the complainant, by his learned counsel, that there are some elements of criminal offences which are prima facie made out against the applicants; the reason for registration of various offences like those punishable under Ss. 420, 419, 409, 504, 506 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code, we find on careful consideration of the material available in case diary and allegations made against the applicants by the non-applicant no.2 in the First Information Report, that no prima facie case for registration of these offences against any of the applicants is made out.

4. The allegations made against the applicants are basically regarding non payment of rent by the applicants for a certain period of time. At the same time, non-applicant no.2, in his complaint, admits that during the first year of the agreement of leave and license, non-applicant no.2 was paid full rent by the applicants and in the second year of the 7 years agreement, non applicant no.2 received rent of Rs.69,00,000.00 from the applicants. Once, it is admitted by a complainant like non-applicant no.2 that a part of the promise made by the accused is fulfilled, no allegation made by a complainant against the accused that remaining part of the agreement was not fulfilled by the accused can be understood as amounting to intentionally deceiving the complainant. In order to make out any offence punishable under Sec. 420 of the Indian Penal Code, there has to be present dis-honest intention since beginning of the transaction which is not here. As regards, the offence punishable under Sec. 409 of the Indian Penal Code, there must be some entrustment of the property or handing over of any dominion over the property and its dishonest use or disposal by the accused. Merely because there is a grievance of not paying of rent by the tenant for some months or for some years, it cannot be said that there is any dishonest use or disposal of the property. Therefore, accepting all the allegations made in the complaint against the applicants at their face value and as they are, without adding anything thereto or subtracting anything there from, we, find that no offences punishable under Ss. 420 or 409 of the Indian Penal Code, are made out.

5. As regards, the offence of criminal conspiracy, under Sec. 120-B of the Indian Penal Code, which has been registered against the applicants, we find that there is not even a whisper regarding entering into any criminal agreement by these applicants with a view to commit offence in relation to the complainant i.e. non-applicant no.2 and, therefore, in our considered view, even the offence punishable under Sec. 120-B of the Indian Penal Code is not made out in any way.

6. As regards the offences punishable under Sec. 504 and 509 of the Indian Penal Code, we find that there are some allegations of threatening and using insulting language. But, these allegations are absolutely vague as nothing is stated about the date and time of the incident and also the place of occurrence. Therefore, even if these allegations are accepted as they are, we do not think that they would prima facie constitute any offence punishable under Ss. 504 or 506 of the Indian Penal code.

7. Apart from what is stated above, we find that basically the dispute between the applicants on the one hand and non-applicant on the other is Civil in nature. The applicants have, much before filing of the complaint by non-applicant no.2, filed a Civil Suit against the non-applicant no.2. This suit being Reg.Civil Suit No.195 of 2021 is pending before the Small Causes Court at Nagpur. In this Suit, the applicants have sought a declaration that they are lawful tenants on the suit premises in view of the unregistered agreement dtd. 15/9/2020 and the appli