Sardar Harmeet Singh vs State

Dev Kant Trivedi, J.—By means of the present petition under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the applicants have prayed for the quashing of the proceedings of criminal complaint case No. 458 of 1989, Sardar Hari Singh v. Sardar Harmeet Singh and others, pending in the Court of C.J.M. Rae Bareli under Section 498Aof the I.P.C.

A complaint was filed by the opposite party No. 2 against the applicants on 16th of May, 1989 in the Court of C.J.M. who took the cognizance of the case. During the pendency of the said complaint case, evidence was recorded, from which it transpired that the cause of action had accrued to the complainantopposite party No. 2 and his daughter in the month of August 1985. In fact there was no mention of the date of the incident or incidents in the complaint. For the first time in the crossexamination of the petitioner and the crossexamination of the wife of the applicant No. 1 it transpired that she had left her sasural in August, 1985. Thus, the allegation of demand of dowry could in no case be made after August, 1985. The period of limitation for the offence under Section 498A of the I.P.C. in 3 years and thus complaint should have been filed in or before August, 1988. The complaint, was however, made only on 1651989 without any application for condonation of delay in filing the case. In the circumstances, there appears to be substance in the contention of the applicants that the complaint was barred by time and the proceedings on the basis of such complaint could not have been initiated against the appellants.

In view of what has been stated above, it is evident that the criminal proceedings of Case No. 458 of 1989, amount to abuse of the process of law and an order to quash the 1same is the only alternative to secure the ends of justice.

The application under Section 498 of the Code of Criminal Procedure is, therefore, allowed.

The proceedings of Criminal Complaint Case No. 458 of 1989 and the orders passed therein are hereby quashed.