NEW DELHI: Criminal proceedings are not a shortcut for other remedies and criminal law cannot be set into motion in a usual manner, the Delhi High Court said. The high court stated that summoning an accused in a criminal case is a serious matter and the complainant has to bring on record material to support the allegations to have criminal law set into motion.
The observations were made by the high court while quashing the complaint and summoning order against a practising lawyer for the alleged offence of criminal breach of trust on account of the absence of material to prima facie establish the commission of the offence as alleged in the complaint.
The complainant real estate company, in the present matter, claimed that the petitioner's lawyer illegally released to its opponent certain documents kept in an escrow account created in his name. Giving relief to the lawyer, Justice Chandra Dhari Singh said “Criminal proceedings are not a shortcut for other remedies. The petitioner is a practising advocate and he has given his professional services to the parties and there is no material on record to establish prima facie that he has committed any offence as alleged in the complaint.”
The high court said that the order of the magistrate summoning the accused must reflect the application of mind to the facts and the law and he is not a ‘silent spectator at the time of recording of preliminary evidence before summoning of the accused.
IIT COMMITTEE TO PROBE PLAGIARISM charges
Following allegations of plagiarism made by a Ph.D. scholar against two IIT-Delhi professors, the Delhi High Court has directed a committee at the institute to conclude its probe and submit a report to it. The petitioner, who had who joined the Department of Management Studies as a Ph.D. scholar in 2018, had accused his co-guide of using two of his research proposals for getting a fellowship worth `10.80 lakh for herself. The matter has been listed for further hearing on July 19.