HC cannot quash FIR even if complainant has no authority — SC

The High Court had quashed the FIR, saying BI was the only competent authority to investigate into any alleged evasion of sales tax or malpractices related to sales tax and police had no authority to register the FIR.

Allowing the appeal of the West Bengal Government against the Calcutta High Court, a division bench of the Apex Court comprising Justice K T Thomas and Justice D P Mohapatra said, "How could the FIR be quashed if the investigating agency should have been different?"

"By lodging FIR alone, no investigation is conducted by police. It is the first step towards starting investigation. If the High Court was of the opinion that investigation has to be conducted by the Bureau, then also there was no need to quash the FIR," the bench observed.

Writing the judgment, Justice Thomas said, "Anyway, we take the view that as offences under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) are also involved, efficacious investigation can be conducted by entrusting it to the police."

Justice Thomas said as in this case, if offences falling under the IPC or any other enactment were also detected during the investigation conducted by BI, "there is no inhibition to pass over the investigation to the regular police".

The Apex Court ruled that the High Court’s inherent powers under Section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) were reserved to be used "to give effect to any orders under the Code, or to prevent abuse of the process of any court or otherwise to secure the ends of justice".

"It is unfortunate that the single judge of Calcutta High Court overlooked the reality that by quashing the FIR in the case, the High Court did not achieve any one of the above factors," Justice Thomas said.

"On the contrary, the result of quashing the FIR had rendered the allegations of offences made against the person to remain consigned in stupor perennially. Hence, instead of achieving ends of criminal Justice, the impugned order would achieve the reverse of it," he said and added, "So from any angle, the High Court has committed serious error in quashing the FIR."

Underlining the serious consequences of the order of the High Court, the Apex Court said if the view of the single judge was to be approved, then if a person who committed an offence under Sales Tax Act also committed other serious offences falling under IPC as part of the same transaction, neither police, special police nor CBI could probe into it.