Delhi courts sets aside order for FIR in property case, says civil matter given criminal colour

A Delhi court has set aside an order directing police to register an FIR against a property seller, observing that the matter was within the domain of civil law and appeared to have been given a criminal colour as a ''pressure tactic." The petitioner had sold a property to a person and despite the execution of the agreement to sell and handing over of possession, he allegedly did not register the sale deed, following which the purchaser moved a metropolitan magistrate's court.

"In the case at hand, I find that the magistrate erred in law by passing the impugned order and the same suffers from jurisdictional error. Accordingly, the impugned order dated April 12, 2022, thereby directing SHO concerned to register an FIR, against the revisionist (and the petitioner) stands set aside being not sustainable in the eyes of law," Additional Sessions Judge Anuj Agrawal said. He said even if the whole case of respondent was taken true on its face value, no offence much less any cognisable offence was disclosed in the case.

"Failed obligation and frustrated expectations cannot and must not lead to any criminal liability," the judge said.

The judge further said the Supreme Court and various high courts have time and again deprecated the initiation of false criminal proceedings in cases having the elements of civil dispute and that the quick relief offered by a criminal prosecution as opposed to a civil dispute incentivises the litigant to initiate false and vexatious proceedings.

"In a country suffering the scourge of world's largest backlog of cases, litigants often view criminal proceedings as a tool to pressure and obtain a favourable settlement from the other side," the judge said.

Earlier, on directions from the metropolitan magistrate's court, police filed a status report saying the matter was civil in nature and there was no cognizable offence.

After considering the arguments and the status report, the magisterial court said prima facie the complaint disclosed the commission of a cognisable offence.

It then directed the Station House Officer (SHO) of Lajpat Nagar police station to register an FIR under "appropriate provisions of law." Against the order, the petitioner had filed a revision petition in the sessions court.