Bengaluru: Criminal law cannot be permitted to become a weapon or bargaining power in civil claims, the Karnataka high court has observed, quashing proceedings against an elderly Bengaluru woman and her first daughter.The case was based on a complaint filed by the younger daughter, a resident of Singapore. Her key grievance is that the mother had sold property without her consent even though she had a one-third share in it.Justice M Nagaprasanna has noted in his order that if the second respondent (or, the complainant) believes she’s entitled to a share in the property, then she has invoked the law through a case in civil court. “That remedy must run its course,” the judge said.
CJP Jantar Mantar Protest Updates
The complainant’s father, Vasantha Rangan, passed away in 2015, leaving behind a residential property, fixed deposits, jewellery and other assets: Schedule ‘A’ lists the house to be partitioned; Schedule ‘B’ catalogues all movable assets.Mythili, 73, and her elder daughter Smitha, 50, had approached the high court, challenging the FIR registered by Shruthi with Sanjayanagar police. Shruthi “appears to have enlisted the assistance of police to subject her mother to avoidable criminal prosecution”, the judge noted.“The relief sought is civil in character, and these are within the province of civil courts. What is essentially a dispute over inheritance appears to have been clothed in the garb of criminality. The criminal process cannot become a surrogate for civil remedies, nor can it be employed as an instrument of pressure,” the judge noted.
