[Section 420 IPC] Dishonest inducement necessary for offence of cheating: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that to make out the offence of cheating under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), there must be a dishonest inducement to deceive a person to deliver some property [Rekha Jain v. State of Karnataka and Another]..A Division Bench of Justices MR Shah and BV Nagarathna stated that in the absence of any specific allegation of inducement, the accused cannot be prosecuted for the offence of cheating."To make out a case against a person for the offence under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) 1860, there must be a dishonest inducement to deceive a person to deliver any property to any other person," the Court said. The top court was hearing an appeal assailing the decision of the Karnataka High Court, by which it had refused to quash a first information report (FIR) registered against the appellant in connection with a case of cheating. The Bench in the instant case directed quashing of the FIR. .The husband of the appellant was accused of taking away 2 Kg and 27 gm of gold jewellery. During the investigation, it was found that the appellant was absconding with her husband and the gold jewellery taken away by her husband was in her possession.Accordingly, an FIR was registered against her for the offence of cheating.The Karnataka High Court had refused to quash the same, leading to the present appeal. .Counsel for the appellant argued that since the entire allegation of dishonest inducement is against her husband, and nothing is against her, she cannot be prosecuted for the offence of cheating.Counsel for the complainants argued that the appellant has been found in possession of the gold jewellery, which was taken away by her husband and had also been absconding. Therefore, it cannot be said that she has not committed any offence at all..At the outset, the top court noted that in the complaint or the FIR, no allegations were made against the appellant on whether she had dishonestly induced the complainant.The Court noted all the allegations of inducement were against her husband. It, therefore, quashed the case under Section 420 against the appellant- accused. "However, it is clarified that what is quashed is the criminal proceedings for the offence under Section 420 of IPC only and not for any other offence(s), if any, committed by the accused – Rekha Jain," the Court made it clear. .Advocate-on-Record Febin Mathew Varghese, advocates Ranjith Kumar and Dhiraj Philip appeared for the appellant.Advocates Saket Gogia, Dhawesh Pahuja, Devika Khanna, Mahesh Kumar and VD Khanna appeared for the respondents..[Read Judgment]