Cheating is an essential ingredient for an act to constitute an offence under Section 420 IPC: Supreme Court

IN THE CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 167 OF 2021 State of Uttar Pradesh and another JUDGMENT M.R. SHAH J Feeling aggrieved and dissatisfied with the impugned judgment and order dated 27.11.2019 passed by the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad in Criminal Miscellaneous Application No. 5213 of 2018 by which the High Court has dismissed the said application preferred by the appellant herein to quash chargesheet dated 10.05.2017 as well as the entire proceedings of Case Crime No. 1516 under Sections 419 420 323 504 and 506 IPC P.S Kotwali District Azamgarh pending in the Court of learned Chief Judicial Magistrate Azamgarh the appellant original accused No. 2 has preferred the present appeal. That respondent no.2 complainant lodged an FIR against the appellant herein and her husband for the offences under Sections 419 420 323 504 and 506 IPC alleging inter alia that the appellant’s husband had taken a sum of Rs.5 00 000 from him for getting his son employed. However his son did not get any employment and subsequently when they went to the house of the appellant to ask for the return of the money the appellant assaulted the complainant and threatened to get them falsely implicated in criminal cases and the appellant pushed thrown him and his son from her house. The same was registered as Case Crime No. 153 2016 with P.S. Kotwali District Azamgarh Thereafter the investigating officer filed the chargesheet against the appellant herein and one another for the offences under Sections 419 420 323 504 and 506 IPC. That the appellant herein approached the High Court by way of criminal miscellaneous application No. 52118 under Section 482 Cr.P.C. to quash chargesheet dated 10.05.2017 as well as the entire criminal proceedings. By the impugned judgment and order the High Court has dismissed the said application and has refused to quash the criminal proceedings chargesheet Hence the appellant has preferred the present appeal Learned counsel appearing on behalf of the appellant herein has vehemently submitted that on a bare reading of the FIR and even the chargesheet and the allegations taken on their face no case is made out against the appellant herein. It is submitted that at least no case is made out against the appellant for the offences under Sections 419 & 420 IPC. It is submitted that even if the averments in the complaint taken on their face do not constitute the ingredients necessary for the offence or do not disclose the commission of an offence under IPC. It is submitted that therefore the High Court ought to have quashed the criminal proceedings against the appellant herein for the offences under Sections 419 420 323 504 and 506 IPC. Heavy reliance is placed on the decision of this Court in the case of Prof. R.K. Vijayasarathy v. Sudha Seetharam16 SCC 739 and Dr. Lakshman v. State of Karnatakathe ingredients to constitute an offence under Section 420 are as follows a person must commit the offence of cheating under Section 415 and the person cheated must be dishonestly induced to a) deliver property to any person or b) make alter or destroy valuable security or anything signed or sealed and capable of being converted into valuable security Thus cheating is an essential ingredient for an act to constitute an offence under Section 420 IPC. Cheating is defined under Section 415 of the IPC. The ingredients to constitute an offence of cheating are as follows there should be fraudulent or dishonest inducement of a person by property or The person who was induced should be intentionally induced to deliver any property to any person or to consent that any person shall retain any the person who was induced should be intentionally induced to do or to omit to do anything which he would not do or omit if he were not so deceived Thus a fraudulent or dishonest inducement is an essential ingredient of the offence under Section 415 IPC. A person who dishonestly induced any person to deliver any property is liable for the offence of cheating Now keeping in mind the relevant ingredients for the offences under Sections 419 & 420 IPC as noted hereinabove it is required to be considered whether the averments in the complaint taken on their face do constitute the ingredients necessary for the offences under Sections 419 & 420 IPC as Having gone through the complaint FIR and even the chargesheet it cannot be said that the averments in the FIR and the allegations in the complaint against the appellant constitute an offence under Section 419 & 420 IPC Whatever allegations are made for the offence with respect to inducement and or even giving Rs.5 00 000 for obtaining the job are made against the appellant’s husband co accused. There are no allegations at all that the appellant herein induced the complainant to get the job and the amount of Rs.5 00 000 was given to the appellant herein. Therefore even if all the allegations in the complaint taken at the face value are true in our view the basic essential ingredients of cheating are missing. Therefore this was a fit case for the High Court to exercise the jurisdiction under Section 482 Cr.P.C. and to quash the criminal proceedings against the appellant herein for the offences under Section 419 & 420 IPC. The High Court has failed to exercise the jurisdiction vested in it by not quashing the criminal proceedings against the appellant herein for the offences under Sections 419 & 420 IPC Now so far as the FIR chargesheet criminal proceedings against the appellant herein for the other offences namely under Sections 323 504 & 506 IPC are concerned the High Court has rightly not quashed the criminal proceedings qua the said offences In view of the above and for the reasons stated above the present appeal is allowed in part. The criminal proceedings against the appellant herein for the offences under Section 419 & 420 IPC arising out of Case Crime No. 153 2016 registered with P.S. Kotwali District Azamgarh pending in the Court of learned Chief Judicial Magistrate Azamgarh are hereby quashed and set aside. The criminal proceedings against the appellant herein for the offences under Sections 323 504 & 506 IPC pending in the Court of learned Chief Judicial Magistrate Azamgarh shall be continued as per the chargesheet and shall be disposed of in accordance with law on their own merits Dr. Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud New Delhi March 01 2021 M.R. Shah] 

Summary: Cheating is an essential ingredient for an act to constitute an offence under Section 420 IPC. Cheating is defined under Section 415 of the IPC. In the matter of Archana Rana vs. State of Uttar Pradesh [CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 167 OF 2021], the Court held cheating as an essential ingredient for an offence under Section 420 of the IPC. The judgement was given by Justice Dr. Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud and Justice M.R. Shah. An FIR was lodged by the respondent under Sections 419, 420, 323, 504 and 506 IPC alleging, that the appellant’s husband had taken a sum of Rs.5,00,000/- from him for getting his son employed. However, his son did not get any employment and subsequently when they went to the house of the appellant to ask for the return of the money, the appellant assaulted the complainant and threatened to get them falsely implicated in criminal cases and the appellant pushed/thrown him and his son from her house. The appellant filed a petition to quash the FIR under Section 482 Cr.P.C and the criminal proceedings but it was dismissed by the Court and hence, the appellant preferred the present appeal. It was submitted by the learned counsel appearing on behalf of the appellant that no case is made out against the appellant for the offences under Sections 419 &amp; 420 IPC. Heavy reliance was placed on the the case of Prof. R.K. Vijayasarathy v. Sudha Seetharam (2019) 16 SCC 739 and Dr. Lakshman v. State of Karnataka (2019) 9 SCC 677. The judgement stated, “As observed and held by this Court in the case of Prof. R.K. Vijayasarathy (supra), the ingredients to constitute an offence under Section 420 are as follows: i) a person must commit the offence of cheating under Section 415; and ii) the person cheated must be dishonestly induced to a) deliver property to any person; or b) make, alter or destroy valuable security or anything signed or sealed and capable of being converted into valuable security. Thus, cheating is an essential ingredient for an act to constitute an offence under Section 420 IPC. Cheating is defined under Section 415 of the IPC. The ingredients to constitute an offence of cheating are as follows: 4 i) there should be fraudulent or dishonest inducement of a person by deceiving him. The person who was induced should be intentionally induced to deliver any property to any person or to consent that any person shall retain any property, or the person who was induced should be intentionally induced to do or to omit to do anything which he would not do or omit if he were not so deceived. Thus, a fraudulent or dishonest inducement is an essential ingredient of the offence under Section 415 IPC. A person who dishonestly induced any person to deliver any property is liable for the offence of cheating.”