Dinesh Chandra Verma v. the State of U.P. Thru. Its Addl. Chief Secy. Home Deptt. of Home, Govt. Lko. and Another
Case brief
What is this about?
Continuation of a Section 156(3) Cr.P.C. complaint after the complainant's death; plea that the order permitting the complainant's uncle to continue proceedings by misdescribing himself as the deceased's 'son' was obtained by fraud and is a nullity (K.D. Sharma v. SAIL, (2008) 12 SCC 709 distinguished) rejected for want of prejudice; death of complainant held no bar where continuation was allowed (S.N. Thakur, (1986) 2 SCC 709 distinguished); recall application and criminal revision concurrently upheld; petition under Section 528 BNSS/482 Cr.P.C. dismissed by Allahabad High Court, Lucknow Bench (Abdul Moin, J.) on 31.08.2024.
What did the court decide?
Since the complaint could, after the complainant's death, have been continued by any person — including respondent no.2 in the capacity of being the uncle of the deceased — the mere fact that respondent no.2 described himself as the deceased's 'son' in the continuation application makes no difference to the validity of the order dated 17.11.2017 allowing him to continue the proceedings; the plea of fraud fails as no prejudice is caused to the applicant.