Supreme Court quashes FIR against a 70-year-old widow and her daughter over a land dispute. Slams Telangana HC for a casual, flawed approach and imposes Rs 10 lakh fine on complainant.
New Delhi: Today, on July 18, the Supreme Court of India has quashed an FIR registered against a 70-year-old widow, Mala Choudhary, and her daughter, Puttagunta Revathi Choudhary, in a land dispute case in Telangana.
The apex court strongly criticized the misuse of the criminal justice system and imposed a Rs 10 lakh fine on the complainant, Srujan Sen, who had filed the FIR. The court called the case a clear instance of harassment where civil issues were wrongfully portrayed as criminal offenses.
A division bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta heard the matter and expressed strong displeasure at the manner in which the Telangana High Court handled the case.
While referring to the High Court’s judgment, the Supreme Court remarked that the Telangana High Court had “casually disposed” of the petition filed by the mother-daughter duo.
The apex court called the High Court’s approach
“absolutely laconic and perfunctory.”
The judgment observed,
“The high court acted with absolute pedantic approach, while disposing of the quashing petition filed by the appellants in the cryptic manner as indicated …without even touching the merits of the case.”
The bench further added that it
“did not appreciate the manner in which the high court threw out the quashing petition in a ‘cursory manner’.”
According to the Supreme Court, the FIR against the two women was based on a land dispute concerning a plot in Gachibowli, Telangana, owned by Mala Choudhary.
Srujan Sen, who claimed to be an agent for a construction firm, alleged that he had entered into an oral agreement to buy the land and paid a total amount of Rs 4.80 crore — Rs 4.05 crore via bank transfer and Rs 75 lakh in cash.
The appellants, however, contended that the transaction was conditional and that no final agreement was reached as Sen failed to pay the complete amount within the stipulated time.
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The FIR was filed by Sen in December 2020, where he also alleged that the mother and daughter threatened him. Based on this, Telangana Police arrested Mala Choudhary in January 2021, despite her being a senior citizen with a vertebral fracture.
She was held in custody for eight days. The Supreme Court was shocked by this action, especially as the High Court refused to even consider the petition for quashing the FIR and pushed the matter to be dealt with at the trial stage.
The Supreme Court bench noted,
“On a bare reading of the FIR, it is clear that a plain and simple dispute involving non-execution of a registered sale deed in terms of so-called oral agreement to sell has been given the cloak of a criminal case by misusing the criminal machinery. Not only this, appellant 1 being a 70 years’ old lady and wife of a retired Army officer was arrested in connection with this false and frivolous FIR and had to remain in custody for almost eight days.”
Initially, the Supreme Court considered sending the matter back to the High Court for proper adjudication. However, it decided to hear and resolve the matter to prevent further mental and physical harassment to the elderly woman and her daughter.
The bench said,
“Even from the admitted allegations set out in the complaint, there was no justification for registering the FIR and rather the complainant should have been instructed to avail the appropriate remedy by approaching the civil court.”
The judgment clarified that this was a matter that clearly fell under civil jurisdiction and should have been resolved through a civil suit.
The bench described the FIR as lacking the essential ingredients required for any cognisable criminal offense and pointed out significant inconsistencies between Sen’s criminal complaint and his subsequent civil suit filed for specific performance of the alleged contract.
Calling out the misuse of legal procedure, the bench said,
“This is a classic case of misuse of the police machinery by a party wielding influence.”
The appellants had told the court that they were willing to return Rs 4.05 crore which had been received via official banking channels. However, the complainant refused this offer and instead demanded interest.
The bench noted that the complainant
“manipulated and distorted the facts”
and used his influence to get the FIR registered against the appellants and added,
“We feel that rather than awarding interest to the complainant, it is a fit case wherein the complainant should be penalised with exemplary cost for misusing the process of criminal law in a case which was of purely civil nature.”
The Supreme Court not only quashed the FIR but also ordered that the complainant, Srujan Sen, must pay Rs 10 lakh to the appellants within 30 days as a penalty for filing a false case.
The verdict, authored by Justice Sandeep Mehta, spans 21 pages and also ordered police protection for the mother and daughter whenever they visit Telangana, provided they give prior notice to the local police.
Case Title:
Mala Choudhary & Anr. vs. State of Telangana & Anr.
Read Judgement:
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