BENGALURU: Courts must remain vigilant against the weaponisation of criminal law in civil disputes as the law, when misused, ceases to be a shield and becomes a sword, the Karnataka High Court said while quashing a case under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
The court was hearing a petition filed by realtor Vilas Bhormalji Oswal from Solapur, Maharashtra, questioning the proceedings pending before a special court brought about by his business partner under provisions of the IPC and SC/ST Act. “The complainant, to wreak vengeance or arm-twist the petitioner over a financial dispute, has made use of the criminal justice system. The complaint is a blade of vengeance, cloaked in the garb of law. A criminal trial, if permitted to proceed, would amount to an egregious abuse of legal machinery,” said Justice M Nagaprasanna.
The court said apart from the delay of 118 days in lodging the complaint before the Directorate of Civil Rights Enforcement, which sat on it for over three years, no casteist remark was made. A financial dispute between two partners is projected to become a crime, court said.
The complainant Somashekara, Oswal and two others were partners in a real estate firm, Green Land Infra, in the city. The dispute surfaced because the petitioner did not sign several documents, resulting in various developments being stalled. The petitioner allegedly threatened the complainant with dire consequences if he did not receive his invested money back from the firm and hurled abuses on December 23, 2020.