Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (RJP)
Mangaluru, Oct 13: The Supreme Court has quashed a criminal case against the directors of Mukka Welfare Society recently.
Justice Prafulla C Pant J of the Supreme Court in her judgment quashed criminal complaint between Robert D’Souza and others (appellants) and Stephen V Gomes and another (respondents) vide order 953 of 2015. The appeal was directed against order dated October 9, 2014 passed by High Court of Karnataka in criminal petition no 658 of 2014 whereby said court had dismissed the petition and declined to quash the criminal complaint case no 357 of 2012.
As per the details of the case, Mukka Welfare Society (where the appellants are directors) was established in 1970 by late Fr J P Tauro at Holy Spirit Church Mukka for charitable work and social service. A piece of land measuring 0.50 acres in Suratkal village was purchased by the society in 1978 which was sold by the society in 1996 dividing it into four plots at the then prevailing market rate. One of these plots was later purchased by a lady hailing from Karkala.
In 2009, Stephan V Gomes, the principal of Gurukul Colleges, Karkala filed a complaint before the deputy commissioner of Dakshina Kannada district alleging that the board of directors of the Society had fraudulently usurped the property through the sale deeds and cheated the Society to the tune of more than Rs 42 lac in 1998. The complaint was investigated by the police and the result of the investigation was that no offence was found committed by the directors on the grounds that the dispute was civil in nature. He later filed the complaint before the first additional senior civil judge and judicial magistrate, Mangaluru. After the due process, the court summoned all the thirteen persons including the president (parish priest), all directors and the purchasers of the said property.
The respondents did not appear in the court. Instead they filed criminal revision petition before the principal sessions and the district judge at Mangaluru, which was dismissed. Thereafter, the respondents filed a petition before the High Court and the same was dismissed. Hence, a special leave petition was filed in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court in its landmark judgement set aside the orders passed by the high court and that of the courts below and also quashed the criminal complaint filed by the complainant.
The special leave petition arose out of the private complaint filed by the Stephan Gomes that the property belonging to a private society registered under Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1970 was sold for a low price and thereby the petitioners – directors of the said society - had caused wrongful loss to the society and thereby allegedly committed offences under section of 406, 409 and 420 of the Indian Penal Code.
The Supreme Court in its order observed that, "none of the offences for which the appellants were summoned is made out from the complaint and material on record". It further found that, "it is nothing but abuse of process of law on the part of complainant to implicate the appellants in a criminal case after a period of twelve years of execution of registered sale deeds in question, who is neither party to the sale deeds nor a member of the society."