By Nihit Nagpal and Anuj Jhawar
The Hon’ble Supreme Court vide its judgment dated May 10, 2022 in Rekha Jain Vs The State of Karnataka & Anr.1 held that to make out a case against a person for an offence under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 there must be a dishonest inducement to deceive a person to deliver any property to any other person. As per Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, whoever cheats and thereby dishonestly induces the person deceived to deliver any property to any person, can be said to have committed an offence as per Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.
Brief facts of the case
The Respondent No. 1 in the present appeal (original complainant), had lodged a complaint against one Kamalesh Mulchand Jain, alleging, inter ¬alia, that by misrepresentation, inducement and with an intention to cheat, the said Kamalesh Mulchand Jain had taken away 2 kg and 27 grams of gold jewellery. Thereafter, an FIR was registered for the offence under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and at the time of investigation, it was found that Rekha Jain, the wife of the accused was absconding and the gold jewellery, taken away from the original complainant by her husband Kamalesh Mulchand Jain, was with her. Therefore, the investigation was carried out against her as well. Rekha Jain approached the Hon’ble Karnataka High Court by way of a Petition under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, however, the Hon’ble Karnataka High Court refused to quash the criminal proceedings/FIR. Feeling aggrieved and dissatisfied with the impugned judgment and order dated September 15, 2020 passed by the Hon’ble Karnataka High Court at Bengaluru in Criminal Petition No. 3442/2020, by which, the Hon’ble Karnataka High Court had dismissed the said criminal petition and had refused to quash the FIR/criminal proceedings against Petitioners, the original Writ Petitioners before the Hon’ble Karnataka High Court have preferred the present Appeal.
Offence of cheating under Section 420 of Indian Penal Code
To make out a case against a person for the offence under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, there must be a dishonest inducement to deceive a person to deliver any property to any other person. In the present case, there is no allegation at all against accused Rekha Jain of any inducement by her to deceive and to deliver the gold jewellery. The allegations of dishonest inducement and cheating are against her husband, accused Kamalesh Mulchand Jain. Therefore, considering the allegations in the FIR/complaint as they are, and in the absence of any allegation of dishonest inducement by Rekha Jain, it cannot be said that she has committed any offence under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 for which she has been charge-sheeted. Allowing the appeal, the Hon’ble Supreme Court observed that the Hon’ble Karnataka High Court should have exercised its powers under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 to rightfully quash the criminal proceedings against Rekha Jain for the offence under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, for which she stands wrongfully accused. The Hon’ble Karnataka High Court has in fact committed a grave error in not so quashing the criminal proceedings against Rekha Jain, this being a fit case for exercise of their powers in this regard.
Conclusion
The Hon’ble Supreme Court noted in the present appeal, that the entire allegations are against the accused Kamalesh Mulchand Jain and there are no allegations whatsoever to the effect that the accused ¬ Rekha Jain dishonestly induced the original complainant to part with the gold jewellery. Therefore, in the absence of any allegation of dishonest inducement by the accused Rekha Jain, she cannot be prosecuted for the offence under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 as that is the necessary substance to prove an offence under the said section.
1Criminal Appeal No. 749 of 2022.
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