Forgery Allegations Against High-Ranking Government Officials Were Without Any Supporting Evidence: Kerala HC Dismisses Case
The Kerala High Court dismissed a Criminal Revision Petition filed by an Individual against 48 high-ranking government officials under offences of forgery, conspiracy, cheating, violence, breach of trust, and disobeying the law.
The Court noted that the Petitioner’s complaint contained wild, unconnected, and incomprehensible allegations. The Petitioner cited multiple statutory provisions but provided no supporting evidence to back up his claims, the Court emphasized.
“As mentioned earlier, the revision petitioner has arrayed numerous officers of the Government as accused without even making any basic allegation regarding the role attributable to each of them…Allegations that are wild, unconnected and incomprehensible are thus raised in the complaint. Revision petitioner had, in the complaint filed, extracted various statutory provisions with vacuous allegations without any material to substantiate them”, Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas observed.
Public Prosecutor C.N Prabhakaran appeared for the Respondents.
The Petitioner filed a complaint before the Magistrate accusing 48 individuals of crimes such as forgery, conspiracy, cheating, violence, breach of trust, and disobeying the law. The Petitioner claimed that Police Officials were involved in fabricating a document with a forged signature and that investigating officers had taken bribes and impersonated the Petitioner. The Petitioner filed a private complaint to the Magistrate but was dismissed under Section 203 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). The Petitioner noted that the High Court, in the appeal, had directed the final report to be filed within two months from January 5, 2022. Yet, the police created records showing the final report was filed on December 12, 2021, indicating the falsity of the Accused's case. The Petitioner filed a Criminal Revision Petition challenging the order.
The Court held that the learned Magistrate was right to dismiss the complaint and prevent a frivolous lawsuit. The Court reiterated that the main reason for the backlog of cases is the large amount of frivolous lawsuits filed by litigants with the intention of using the justice system for their own harmful purposes. It is important to curtail these vexatious lawsuits in order to improve the effectiveness of the justice system, the Court noted while citing the Dictim of the Supreme Court in the case of Krishna Lal Chawla and Others v. State of Uttar Pradesh and Another [(2021) 5 SCC 435].
The Court observed that the Petitioner had made vague accusations against high-ranking officials but provided no clear evidence. The allegations of forgery were disproven with Petitioner’s evidence. The Court noted that the Public Prosecutor's arguments regarding the complaint filed were an abuse of the court's process.
“As pointed out by the learned Public Prosecutor, the complaint filed by the revision petitioner is undoubtedly an abuse of the process of the court. On an appreciation of the circumstances arising in the case, this Court is of the view that the learned Magistrate was justified in dismissing the complaint, nipping off, at the threshold itself, a frivolous litigation”, the Court noted.
Additionally, the Court noted that the issue of the revision petitioner not obtaining the sanction to prosecute the accused is not being addressed at this time, as the complaint was not dismissed on such basis.
Accordingly, the Court dismissed the Petition.
Cause Title: Asif Azad v State of Kerala
