An application for Quashing of FIR can be filed before the High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India by means of a Criminal Miscellaneous Writ Petition. Thus, one can invoke the extraordinary jurisdiction of the court in order to quash an FIR.
The decision of quashing an FIR must not be granted in a callous and cavalier manner as the criminal case is at the stage of inception. Nothing concrete can be made out of the FIR in any of the cases as it is the first step of the process but this does not allow the court to quash all such FIRs from which a case cannot be made out.
To avoid the dilemma, the Court has laid down a seven-ground ambit and held that if the case in consideration is encapsulated by one of the grounds, the High Court may quash the FIR.
- When the allegations in the FIR or the complaint even if taken at their face value DO NOT PRIMA FACIE CONSTITUTE AN OFFENCE or make out a case against the accused,
- When the allegations in the FIR do not disclose a COGNIZABLE OFFENCE, i.e. an offence where on an investigation, the police can arrest the suspected accused without a warrant from the court to that effect,
- When the allegations in the FIR and the evidence collected do not disclose the commission of an offence and make out a case against the accused,
- Where the allegations of the FIR constitute a non-cognizable offence, no investigation is permitted by a police officer without an order of the magistrate.
- When the allegations contained in the FIR are so absurd in nature and no prudent man can justify that proceedings shall initiated against the accused,
- When any act or provision of law bars the initiation of proceedings or continuation or proceedings, or there is an effective alternate redressal provided for the aggrieved,
- Where the criminal proceedings are instituted with malafide intent or ulterior motive to seek vengeance.
The court has further stated that these grounds are not exhaustive and there is space for existence of other possibilities on the basis of which an FIR can be quashed.
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