Criminal proceedings arising from a genuine civil property dispute, which lack the essential statutory ingredients for the alleged penal offences and are invoked merely to exert pressure, are liable to be quashed under the court's inherent powers to prevent abuse of process.

ORDER :

L. VICTORIA GOWRI, J.

Preface:

1.The inherent jurisdiction of this Court, though extraordinary in its amplitude, is not unbridled in its exercise. It is invoked not to conduct a miniature trial, nor to supplant the statutory process of investigation, but to prevent abuse of the process of law and to secure the ends of justice.

2. Cases arising out of bitter civil disputes often assume a criminal complexion. Equally, criminal law cannot be stifled merely because the backdrop includes a civil contest. The Court must, therefore, carefully examine whether the criminal process has been set in motion on a factual foundation disclosing the ingredients of cognizable offences, or whether it has been employed as a weapon in a property struggle.

3. The present petition is one such case where allegations of trespass, abuse, theft, mischief and intimidation are interwoven with a longstanding dispute over title, possession and alleged encroachment, and where the additional invocation of the provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, gives the matter a grave statutory complexion.

4. The petitioners seek quashment of the FIR in Crime No.367 of 2023 on the file of the 2nd respondent police, contending that the entire prosecution is mala fide, inherently improbable, and a dressed-up attempt to convert a civil dispute into a criminal case.

Case of the prosecution:

5. The prosecution case, as could be gathered from the complaint and the FIR, is that the 3^rd respondent / defacto complainant belongs to a Scheduled Caste community. According to the complaint, on 24.12.2023 at about 06.45 a.m., the 1^st petitioner, who is stated to be a real estate businessman, along with about 30 persons, entered the house of the defacto complainant situated at Kurinji Nagar, Kodaikanal.

6. It is alleged that the accused persons abused the defacto complainant in filthy language by referring to her caste name, humiliated her, damaged household articles worth about Rs. 4,00,000/-, took jewels and cash from the house, and thereafter threatened the complainant and her family members with dire consequences, including that they would not be permitted to remain in Kodaikanal unless they vacated the locality.

7. It is further the prosecution case that the complaint came to be lodged on 26.12.2023 at about 10.30 p.m., nearly two days after the alleged occurrence, and that the same was registered as Crime No.367 of 2023 for offences under Sections 147, 294(b), 427, 506(i), 379 of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 3(1)(r), 3(1)(s) and 3(2)(Va) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

Grounds for quash:

8. The petitioners would state that they are husband and wife, senior citizens, and permanent residents of Chennai, and that the allegations are wholly false. The specific case of the petitioners is that the 2^nd petitioner is the lawful owner of the property comprised in Survey Nos.32/7, 32/8 and connected survey fields at Kurinji Nagar, Kodaikanal.

9. According to them, the properties originally belonged to one Mariappan and Nambikkai Mary, who sold the lands on 07.12.1994 in favour of one Dewasudin under registered sale deeds. The legal heirs of the original vendors are stated to have attested those sale deeds. It is the further case of the petitioners that