Court : Bombay High Court
Brief : Abuse of process of Law - Whether the issuance of process against the accused under section 406,420 and 423 of IPC tenable keeping in view accused being Juristic persons and not natural person?
Citation : Arvind Navinchandra Mafatlal, Chairman Emeritus of NOCIL Ltd. and Mr. Hrishkesh Arvind Mafatlal, Chairman of NOCIL Limited Ex-Chairman of DE-NOCIL Crop Protection Pvt. Ltd. v. Dr. Palakavayalli Joseph Thomas, Mrs. Sonia Thomas Pinto and State of Maharashtra (Decided on 23.04.2010) MANU/MH/0396/2010
Held, it can clearly be seen that for all the three offences under Sections 406, 420 and 423 of IPC for which the process has been issued "mens rea" is one of the essential ingredient of the offence. Since accused are juristic persons and not a natural person, by no stretch of imagination they can be said to have requisite mens rea. As such the proceedings against the accused will not be sustainable in law, taking considered view that the complaint is nothing but an abuse of the process of law, complaint against any of the accused is not sustainable in law and therefore in the interest of justice it is necessary to quash the criminal proceedings against all the accused.
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