Delhi High Court flags trend of filing false sexual assault cases to arm-twist opponents

The Delhi High Court recently expressed concern over a trend of false sexual assault cases being filed to arm-twist one's opponents [Ms Rajesh Wadhwa and Ors. vs. The State NCT of Delhi and Anr]..Justice Subramonium Prasad observed that there was a growing trend of instituting false cases with allegations such as sexual harassment, outraging a woman’s modesty and voyeurism, only to intimidate or cause trouble to the other person."Unfortunately, it is now becoming a trend to register FIRs alleging offences under Sections 354, 354A, 354B, 354C, 354D IPC either to force a party to withdraw a complaint instituted against them or to arm twist a party. Offences under Sections 354, 354A, 354B, 354C, 354D IPC are serious offences. Such allegations have the effect of tarnishing the image of the person against whom such allegations are made. Allegations regarding these offences cannot be made at a drop of a hat. This practice is an abuse of the process of law," the Court said. .Justice Prasad also called on lawyers not to encourage the filing of such frivolous complaints."It is also unfortunate to see that lawyers are advising and instigating parties to file such frivolous cases. Time has come to sensitize lawyers as well so as to ensure that the process of law is not abused," he said..The Court made the observation while dealing with a matter where a landlord-tenant dispute was found to have been given the colour of a case involving the offence of outraging a woman's modesty. The Court lamented that even children have not been spared and were depicted as victims.The Court added that if the efforts of police officers are diverted to probe such frivolous cases, the investigation needed for more serious cases suffers. The Court opined that action must be taken against those who file such frivolous cases with ulterior purposes.“Police personnel have to spend time in investigating frivolous cases. They have to attend court proceedings, prepare Status Report etc. The result is that investigation in serious offences gets compromised and accused escape because of shoddy investigation. Time has come to initiate action against persons who file frivolous complaints under Sections 354, 354A, 354B, 354C, 354D IPC etc. only for ulterior purpose," the September 13 order said..The common order was passed on two petitions.The first petition concerned a criminal case filed by a landlord against a tenant, wherein the landlord accused the tenant of hurting her and outraging her modesty. The second petition was based on another complaint with similar charges by a tenant, who accused her landlord of outraging her modesty. The Court observed that both criminal complaints had been lodged to counter the other..The parties (landlords, tenants) eventually entered into a compromise and settled their disputes. They then moved the Delhi High Court to quash the criminal cases lodged by them against each other. The High Court proceeded to allow the quashing of both criminal cases by exercising its inherent jurisdiction under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). "The possibility of conviction has become very remote because the Parties have entered into a settlement. The power of the High Courts to quash FIRs while exercising its powers under Section 482 Cr.P.C even for offences which are not compoundable under Cr.P.C. has been settled in a number of judgments," the Court explained. .However, the Court also imposed costs on both parties to the disputes after noting that both the landlord and tenant had misused the legal machinery by lodging false FIRs against each other. By doing this, the parties had wasted the time and resources of the police as well as the Court. The Court, therefore, imposed costs of ₹10,000 each on both sides and ordered the parties to pay these costs to the Armed Forces Battle Casualties Welfare Fund..Advocates GS Panwar and Varun Gupta represented the petitioners. Additional Public Prosecutor Shoaib Haider appeared for the State..[Read order]