LexREKHA JAIN versus THE STATE OF KARNATAKA & ANR.
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A B C D E F G H 558 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2022] 3 S.C.R. 558 REKHA JAIN v. THE STATE OF KARNATAKA & ANR. (Criminal Appeal No. 749 of 2022) MAY 10, 2022 [M. R. SHAH AND B. V. NAGARATHNA, JJ.] Penal Code, 1860: s. 420 – Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property – Necessary ingredient of s. 420 – Held: To make out a case against a person for the offence u/s. 420, there must be a dishonest inducement to deceive a person to deliver any property to any other person – On facts, no allegation at all against accused-appellant of any inducement by her to deceive and to deliver the gold jewellery – Allegations of dishonest inducement and cheating against her husband – Thus, it cannot be said that she has committed any offence u/s. 420 for which she is chargesheeted – Thus, the High Court erred in not quashing the criminal proceedings against appellant – In view thereof, the criminal proceedings against the appellant for the offence u/s. 420 is quashed – Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 – s. 482. Partly allowing the appeal, the Court HELD : As per Section 420 IPC, whoever cheats and thereby dishonestly induces the person deceived to deliver any property to any person, can be said to have committed the offence under Section 420 IPC. Therefore, to make out a case against a person for the offence under Section 420 IPC, there must be a dishonest inducement to deceive a person to deliver any property to any other person. In the instant case, there is no allegation at all against accused-appellant 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. Therefore, considering the allegations in the FIR/complaint as they are, and in the absence of any allegation of dishonest inducement by appellant, it cannot be said that she has committed any offence under Section 420 IPC for which she is now chargesheeted. Therefore, the High Court has committed a grave error in not quashing the criminal proceedings against appellant [2022] 3 S.C.R. 558 A B C D E F G H 559 for the offence under Section 420 IPC. This is a fit case where the High Court could have exercised its powers under Section 482 Cr.PC and to quash the criminal proceedings against appellant for the offence under Section 420 IPC. In view thereof, the criminal proceedings against the appellant-accused for the offence under Section 420 IPC is quashed. However, it is clarified that what is quashed is the criminal proceedings for the offence under Section 420 IPC only and not for any other offence(s), if any, committed by the accused. [Para 8, 9][561-D-H; 562-A-B] CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION : Criminal Appeal No.749 of 2022. From the Judgment and Order dated 15.09.2020 of the High Court of Karnataka at Bangalore in Criminal Petition No.3442 of 2020. Ranjith Kumar, Febin Mathew Varghese, Advs. for the Appellant. Saket Gogia, Dhawesh Pahuja, Mahesh Kumar, Ms. Devika Khanna, Ms. V. D. Khanna for M/s. VMZ Chambers, Advs. for the Respondents. The Judgment of the Court was delivered by M. R. SHAH, J. 1. Feeling aggrieved and dissatisfied with the impugned judgment and order dated 15.09.2020 passed by the High Court of Karnataka at Bengaluru in Criminal Petition No. 3442/2020, by which, the High Court has dismissed the said criminal petition and has refused to quash the FIR/criminal proceedings against petitioners, the original writ petitioners before the High Court have preferred the present appeal. 2. At the outset, it is required to be noted that by order dated 08.01.2021, the present appeal in respect of petitioner No. 1 (Kamalesh Mulchand Jain) has been dismissed and the notice has been issued in respect of appellant – petitioner No. 2 (Rekha Jain). Therefore, the present appeal is required to be considered qua accused Rekha Jain only. 3. That respondent No. 2 herein – original complainant lodged a complaint against one Kamalesh Mulchand Jain (husband of Rekha Jain), alleging, inter-alia, that by misrepresentation, inducement and with an intention to cheat him, the said Kamalesh Mulchand Jain had taken away REKHA JAIN v. THE STATE OF KARNATAKA & ANR. A B C D E F G H 560 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2022] 3 S.C.R. 2 kg and 27 grams of gold jewellery. A complaint was registered as FIR/ Crime Case No. 75/2020 dated 13.03.2020 for the offence under Section 420 of Indian Penal Code (IPC). During the course of the investigation, it was found that appellant – Rekha Jain was abscond
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