Law: Criminal Procedure Code (V of 1898)

Section: 561-A

Criminal Procedure Code (V of 1898)-----   ----S. 561-A-Abuse of process-Enforcing civil liability through Criminal Court Complainant making statement in Court that he was primarily interested in recovery of his dues and that he had resorted to Criminal Court only for that purpose-Complaint in Criminal Court, held, gross abuse of process of Courts-Proceedings quashed.   Ladha Shah v. Zaman Ali A I R 1925 Lah. 289 and S. C. Mitra v. Raja Kali Charan A I R 1928 Oudh 104 ref. JUDGMENT   The facts leading up to this application under section 561-A of the Code of Criminal Procedure for the quashing of certain criminal proceedings against the petitioner briefly are that on the 23rd of July 1960, Imtiaz Khan, respondent filed a complaint under sections 406 and 420, P. P. C., in the Court of the Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Bannu, alleging that on the 10th of January 1960, Mahmood-ul-Hasan, petitioner and his father, Haji Faiz Bakhsh, now deceased, visited him at Bannu and told him that his brother, Shah Nawaz, a timber merchant at Bahawalpur, had asked for a truck-load of building timber mid some clothes details of which are given in the complaint, Imtiaz Khan accordingly made over one truck-load of timber, valued at Rs. 3,750 and clothes to the value of Rs. 165 to the petitioner and his father for delivery to Shah Nawaz. Two months late, Shah Nawaz happened to visit Bannu and Imtiaz Khan asked him whether he had received the articles. Shah Nawaz replied that be had never ordered them. Imtiaz Khan then pressed the petitioner and his father to return the timber and clothes, but they refused to do so.   Cognizance was duly taken of the complaint, but after com plainant, his brotherShah Nawaz and one Gulfam, truck driver, had been examined, the petitioner filed an application in this Court under section 526, Cr. P. C. for transfer of the case from Bannu on the ground that the proceedings were of a civil nature, the last transaction between the parties having taken place in the year 1954, and that the complaint was false, being in the nature of an attempt to bring pressure to bear on the petitioner to pay the amount due on the basis of the transac tions…