RAJENDER KUMAR JAINA Vs. RAJESH PURI & ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The challenge by means of this Regular First Appeal under Sec. 96 of Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (CPC) is to the impugned judgment dated 18.7.2002 of the trial Court which dismissed the suit filed by the appellant/plaintiff for damages of Rs. 5 lacs on the ground that there was no malicious prosecution of the appellant/plaintiff.

(2.) The case of the appellant/plaintiff was that because of the false complaint, he suffered humiliation, mental agony etc. from 4.8.1997 to 6.8.1997 inasmuch as he was denied bail and was sent to judicial custody.

(3.) The trial Court has dismissed the suit inasmuch as the appellant/plaintiff failed to file any proof of his status (which would have been in the form of income tax return or the ownership of properties) for determining what could have been the actual damages suffered by the appellant/plaintiff. The plaintiff also led no evidence of any mental agony or how his reputation was lowered. The trial Court has also noted that the appellant/plaintiff failed to prove malicious prosecution because he did not file any judgment of the criminal complaint being false and hence dismissed. The relevant observations of the trial Court are contained in para 6 of the impugned judgment and which reads as under: -