TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2022 (2) TMI 1433
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....r hand, entered into various Agreements for Sale with respect to properties situated at Bangalore. According to the Appellants, the amounts as mentioned in the agreements, were paid by them as consideration by three cheques, one of them drawn from the account of Appellant No. 1, another one from account of M/s. S.S.R.V. Trans Solutions and other one from the account of M/s. Shobha Tours and Travels, which are operated by Appellant No. 1. All these three cheques were bearer cheques. It is the case of Appellants that, all the cheques were encashed by the Respondent No. 2. 5. It is the case of the Appellants that, after receipt of the payments, the Respondent No. 2 was avoiding to get the Sale-deed registered. As such, the Appellant Nos. 2 and 3 on 24th November, 2017 had filed four different suits being O.S. No. 8020/2017, 8018/2017, 1616/2017 and 1614/2017, before the Courts of Principal Senior Civil Judge and Principal City Civil Judge at Bangalore, for specific performance of contract. The Respondent No. 2, who is the Defendant No. 1 in O.S. No. 8020/2017, filed his written statement on 09th April 2018. 6. The Respondent No. 2, thereafter filed a complaint dated 10th September 2....
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....the Code of Criminal Procedure before the High Court of Karnataka at Bengaluru, being Criminal Petition Nos. 6719/2020, 6733/2020, 6729/2020 and 6737/2020. The main contention of the Appellants in the criminal petitions was that, the order Under Section 156(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure was passed in a mechanical manner by the II Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, at Bangalore. 12. It was submitted that, the Magistrate was required to apply his mind before passing an order Under Section 156(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure. It was further submitted that, unless an application Under Section 156(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure was supported by an affidavit duly sworn by the complainant, the learned Magistrate could not have passed an order under the said provision. 13. It was further submitted that, the dispute was purely civil in nature and the criminal complaint was filed by the Respondents only to harass the Appellants. The Single Judge of the High Court vide four identical impugned orders dated 22nd January 2021, dismissed the petitions on the ground that, serious allegations of cheating and forgery were shown in the complaint and as such no case was made....
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....lore, out of which the present proceedings arise. 19. It could thus be clearly seen that, the said complaint dated 10th September 2019, was filed almost after a period of two years from the date of institution of suits by the Appellant Nos. 2 and 3, and almost after a period of one and a half year from the date on which written statement was filed by Respondent No. 2. 20. It will be relevant to refer to the following observations of this Court in the case of State of Haryana and Ors. v. Bhajan Lal and Ors. 1992 Supp (1) SCC 335 which read thus. 102. In the backdrop of the interpretation of the various relevant provisions of the Code under Chapter XIV and of the principles of law enunciated by this Court in a series of decisions relating to the exercise of the extraordinary power Under Article 226 or the inherent powers Under Section 482 of the Code which we have extracted and reproduced above, we give the following categories of cases by way of illustration wherein such power could be exercised either to prevent abuse of the process of any court or otherwise to secure the ends of justice, though it may not be possible to lay down any precise, clearly defined and sufficiently ch....
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....that the extraordinary or inherent powers do not confer an arbitrary jurisdiction on the court to act according to its whim or caprice. 21. It could thus be seen that, though this Court has cautioned that, power to quash criminal proceedings should be exercised very sparingly and with circumspection and that too in the rarest of rare cases, it has specified certain category of cases wherein such power can be exercised for quashing proceedings. 22. We find that in the present case, though civil suits have been filed with regard to the same transactions and though they are contested by the Respondent No. 2 by filing written statement, he has chosen to file complaint Under Section 156(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure after a period of one and half years from the date of filing of written statement with an ulterior motive of harassing the Appellants. We find that, the present case fits in the category of No. 7, as mentioned in the case of State of Haryana v. Bhajan Lal (supra). 23. Further we find that, the present appeals deserve to be allowed on another ground. 24. After analyzing the law as to how the power Under Section 156(3) of Code of Criminal Procedure has to be exercis....
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....would also be aware of the delay in lodging of the FIR. 25. This Court has clearly held that, a stage has come where applications Under Section 156(3) of Code of Criminal Procedure are to be supported by an affidavit duly sworn by the complainant who seeks the invocation of the jurisdiction of the Magistrate. 26. This Court further held that, in an appropriate case, the learned Magistrate would be well advised to verify the truth and also verify the veracity of the allegations. The court has noted that, applications Under Section 156(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure are filed in a routine manner without taking any responsibility only to harass certain persons. 27. This Court has further held that, prior to the filing of a petition Under Section 156(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, there have to be applications Under Section 154(1) and 154(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure. This Court emphasizes the necessity to file an affidavit so that the persons making the application should be conscious and not make false affidavit. With such a requirement, the persons would be deterred from causally invoking authority of the Magistrate, Under Section 156(3) of the Code of Crimin....