Prima facie allegations of tax evasion and fabricated accounts justified prosecution, so quashing under inherent criminal jurisdiction was refused.

A complaint alleging that partners of a firm conspired to evade tax, defraud the revenue, deceive the Income-tax Officer and fabricate false evidence by maintaining books with false entries was found to disclose a prima facie case. On those averments, the High Court held that inherent jurisdiction under section 482 CrPC could not be used to quash the prosecution at the threshold, because the prosecution was entitled to lead evidence and the petitioners could raise their defences before the trial Magistrate after evidence was recorded. Quashing was therefore refused at this stage.

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Issues: Whether the pending prosecution against the petitioners was liable to be quashed under section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 on the ground that the complaint did not disclose sufficient allegations to justify issuance of process.

Analysis: The complaint alleged that the petitioners, as partners of the first accused firm, conspired with the other accused to wilfully evade tax, defraud the revenue, deceive the Income-tax Officer, and fabricate false evidence by maintaining books of account containing false entries. On those averments, the allegations were held to disclose a prima facie case sufficient to permit the prosecution to proceed. The Court further held that the prosecution must be allowed to adduce evidence, and the petitioners could raise their contentions before the trial Magistrate after the evidence was recorded.

Conclusion: The petitioners were not entitled to quashing of the prosecution at this stage.

Final Conclusion: The complaint disclosed sufficient material to proceed to trial, and the inherent jurisdiction of the Court was not invoked to terminate the prosecution.

Ratio Decidendi: Quashing under the inherent criminal jurisdiction is not warranted where the complaint, taken at face value, contains averments making out a prima facie case for trial.

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