LAXMI Vs. OM PRAKASH SHARMA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE Petitioners have invoked the inherent powers of this Court for quashing the proceedings pending against them in the Court of Chief Judicial magistrate, Bhind (Criminal Case No. 393/1982) under Sections 380 and 497 read with section 34 of the Indian Penal Code.

(2.) THE Petitioner No. 1 is the married wife of the non-petitioner. Petitioners Nos 2 and 3 are the parents of Petitioner No. 1, and Petitioner No. 4 is her brother. Non petitioner-husband, Om Prakash Sharma, who is an Advocate practising at Bhind, filed a complaint against the petitioners in the Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Bhind, that while the petitioners were staying in his house, they had taken away ornaments of gold and silver. These ornaments, according to the complaint, were his ancestral property, which during his marriage with petitioner No. 1, was given to her as gift. The complaint further proceeds that till 9-1-1980 all the petitioners were staying in his house from 6-1-1980; when he returned in the night of 10-1-1980 he found that none of the petitioners was present in the home and had taken away the entire ornaments of the family. The complaint further proceeds and contains several facts which are not relevant at all for deciding this petition. Before the processes were issued, four prosecution witnesses were examined, and since then the proceedings are pending against the petitioners in the Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate. The petitioners claim that assuming the contents of the complaint or the version of the prosecution be true, still the alleged theft is alleged to have been committed by petitioner No. 1, who was the owner of the property alleged to have been stolen, and no case of theft is made out either against petitioner No. 1 or her parents and brother. The learned counsel have extensively addressed this Court on facts as well as on law.

(3.) IN Pratibha Rani AIR 1985 S. C. 628, Hon,ble the Supreme Court observed :