Team Blitz India
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on April 26 emphasised that for summoning of an accused, a prima facie case is to be made out on the basis of allegations in the complaint and the pre-summoning evidence led by the complainant.
The apex court allowed a man to proceed against his wife and two others for offences of bigamy, cheating and criminal conspiracy for marrying him in spite of a subsisting marriage. According to a published report, a Bench of Justices CT Ravikumar and Rajesh Bindal allowed a plea by Aniruddha Khanwalkar against the Madhya Pradesh High Court’s order, which had upheld the Sessions Court’s order to quash the summons issued against his wife, Sharmila Das and two others, Usharani Das and Sangita.
Considering the material on record, the Bench said, the approach of the Sessions Court and the High Court in setting aside the summoning order against the accused persons “is not legally sustainable.”
The appellant contended a prima facie case was made out as he had been dishonestly induced by the respondents to believe that the woman had obtained divorce by showing him a forged order from earlier marriage knowing well that it had not yet been dissolved.
The appellant and the woman had come in contact through a matrimonial site. The appellant was already divorced whereas the woman had uploaded her status as “process of divorce is under consideration.”
