The Supreme Court has recently clarified that High Courts possess the authority to quash an FIR, even if a chargesheet has been filed during the pendency of a petition filed under Section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).
A bench comprising Justices Aniruddha Bose, Sanjay Kumar, and SVN Bhatti made this pronouncement. The bench rendered this observation while dismissing a case filed under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) by a woman against her in-laws.
The bench dismissed the argument that the petition to quash the FIR was no longer valid following the filing of the chargesheet. It reiterated that this legal principle had already been firmly established in the case of Joseph Salvaraj A. vs. the State of Gujarat and others (2011) 7 SCC 59. This principle had been reaffirmed in Anand Kumar Mohatta and another vs. State (NCT of Delhi), Department of Home, and another [(2019) 11 SCC 706].
On the merits of the case, the Court proceeded to quash the FIR, noting that the allegations were implausible and lacking in substance.
Case Title: Abhishek v. State of Madhya Pradesh Citation: 2023
