complaint not sufficient to infer dishonest intention.—Is liable to be quashed by
exercising jurisdiction under Section 482 of Cr.P.C.?
Mr. V. Madhusudhana Rao,
Vs.
STATE of A.P
Criminal Petition 15 of .2020)
12 April 2024
Smt Justice Venkata Jyothirmai Pratapa
PARA 17….since Respondent No.2 has failed to sell the products of the Company as expected, it has appointed Accused No.7 as one of its Distributor by cancelling the Agreement with Respondent No.2 after giving one month notice as per Clause No.42 of the said Agreement, since it is not an exclusive contract. There are no specific allegations with regard to the role played by the Petitioners, who are
the employees of the Company. In such circumstances, it can be said that the ingredients of Section 420 IPC are absent. As the intention to cheat Respondent No.2 was absent, breach of contract is also not attracted against the Petitioners. Further, charge sheet does not disclose the existence of any pre-arranged plan whereby the Petitioners had in collusion with the others decided to commit the offences alleged. Moreover, the present complaint has been filed without arraying the Company of the Petitioners as an Accused. The Petitioners, who are the employees of the Company, keeping the interest of the Company inview, have rightly terminated the Distributor Agreement and had appointed Accused No.7 as a distributor. The judgments relied on by the learned counsel for the Petitioners are squarely applicable to the present facts of the case.
In view of the above discussion, it can safely be held that in absence of any specific allegations against the Petitioners, the criminal. liability cannot be fastened on the Petitioners and continuation of such proceedings against them is an abuse of process of the Court
Accordingly, the Criminal Petition is allowed by quashing the proceedings against Petitioners/Accused Nos.1, 3, 4, 5 & 7 in C.C.No.428 of 2018 on the file of the Court of Judicial Magistrate of
First Class, Tadipatri, Ananthapuram District for the offences under Sections 406 and 420 read with 34 IPC. Pending applications, if any, shall stand closed.
