Ashish Jain vs The State Of Madhya Pradesh on 20 January, 2025

Supreme Court – Daily Orders

Ashish Jain vs The State Of Madhya Pradesh on 20 January, 2025

Author: Sudhanshu Dhulia

Bench: Sudhanshu Dhulia

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     ITEM NO.29                                 COURT NO.13                    SECTION II-A

                                       S U P R E M E C O U R T O F      I N D I A
                                               RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS

     Petition(s) for Special Leave to Appeal (Crl.)                       No(s).     14750/2024

     [Arising out of impugned final judgment and order dated 31-08-2024
     in MCRC No. 20553/2024 passed by the High Court of Madhya Pradesh
     Principal Seat at Jabalpur]

     ASHISH JAIN                                                               Petitioner(s)

                                                         VERSUS

     THE STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH & ORS.                                        Respondent(s)
     (IA No. 245260/2024 - EXEMPTION FROM FILING O.T.)

     Date : 20-01-2025 This matter was called on for hearing today.

     CORAM :                    HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SUDHANSHU DHULIA
                                HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE K. VINOD CHANDRAN

     For Petitioner(s) : Mr. Amarjeet Singh, AOR

     For Respondent(s) : Mr. Siddharth R. Gupta, Adv.
                         Mr. Mrigank Prabhakar, AOR
                         Mr. Sankalp Kochar, Adv.
                         Mr. Siddhant Kochar, Adv.
                         Mr. Aman D., Adv.
                        Mr. Shantanu Sharma, Adv.
                        Mr. Aman Agarwal, Adv.
                        Mr. Siddharth Sahu, Adv.

                                UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following
                                                    O R D E R

The petitioner filed an FIR, bearing No. 790 of 2023 against

the respondents(s) under Sections 406, 420, 465, 467 and 468 of the

Indian Penal Code.

This was challenged by the respondent(s) by invoking the

inherent powers of the High Court under Section 482 of Cr.P.C. for
Signature Not Verified

quashing of the criminal proceedings and the High Court has quashed
Digitally signed by
Jayant Kumar Arora
Date: 2025.01.23
11:03:10 IST
Reason:

the criminal proceedings vide impugned order dated 31.08.2024.

The entire case of the petitioner is that an Agreement to Sell
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was executed between the parties for a piece of land on 01.09.2018,

in which the entire sale consideration was Rs. 70 Lakhs, out of

which Rs. 65 Lakhs were paid at the time of Agreement to Sell and

remaining Rs. 5 Lakhs had to be paid within a period of one year

when the Sale Deed was to be executed.

The Sale Deed was not executed. The petitioner never filed a

case for specific performance, but instead, after the period of

four years, filed an FIR, which was registered under the aforesaid

Sections.

To our mind, the High Court has rightly exercised its powers

under Section 482 Cr.P.C. while coming to the conclusion that the

entire proceedings initiated by the petitioner were nothing but an

abuse of the process of law, inasmuch as the only remedy which was

available to the petitioner at the relevant point of time was to

file a suit for specific performance, which he had never filed

within limitation. It was only when the period of limitation was

over, that he invoked the criminal proceedings against the

respondent, which is nothing but an arm-twisting method, which is

not liable to be permitted.

For the above reasons, we see absolutely no reason to

interfere with the impugned order in exercise of our jurisdiction

under Article 136 of the Constitution of India. The Special Leave

Petition is, accordingly, dismissed.

Pending interlocutory application(s), if any, is/are disposed

of.

(JAYANT KUMAR ARORA)                                   (RENU BALA GAMBHIR)
ASST. REGISTRAR-CUM-PS                                 ASSISTANT REGISTRAR