Alleged Coriander-Field Assault: Karnataka HC Refuses To Quash Case Against 12 After Both Sides Filed Complaints

In brief

The question

Whether the pending civil disputes between the parties made the criminal proceedings an abuse of process warranting quashing.

The court held

The Court declined to quash the proceedings under Section 528 BNSS, holding that the civil disputes did not, on these facts, establish an abuse of process and that the rival versions should be tried by the competent court.

It also directed

The petition was dismissed, with liberty reserved to the petitioners to raise their defences before the trial court.

01Facts

Respondent No. 2 alleged that, during a property-related dispute, the petitioners threatened and assaulted him and his family members while they were sowing coriander seeds; an FIR was registered and a charge sheet filed against the petitioners for offences under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS).

¶ 2–3

The petitioners sought to quash the proceedings, contending that pending civil disputes between the parties had led to the complaint being used to give a criminal colour to the dispute.

¶ 4–6, 10

The State submitted that the petitioners’ side had also filed a complaint about the same incident, registered as Crime No. 62/2025, and that charge sheets had been filed in both cases.

¶ 7–8

02Issues

i.Whether the pending civil disputes between the parties made the criminal proceedings an abuse of process warranting quashing.

¶ 10–13

ii.Whether the High Court should exercise its inherent jurisdiction under Section 528 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS), to quash the proceedings in light of the cross-complaints, investigation material, and wound certificates.

¶ 11–15

03Law Applied

The Court considered its inherent power under Section 528 of the BNSS, invoked in the petition alongside Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, to quash criminal proceedings.

It held that the existence of civil disputes, by itself, does not establish that criminal proceedings are an abuse of process where the complaints allege physical assault and the investigation material, including wound certificates, supports the allegation that an incident occurred.

¶ 13–15

The Court also considered that, where opposing complaints concern the same incident and both have resulted in charge sheets, the rival versions and related evidence should be adjudicated by the competent trial court.

¶ 11–14

Provisions in the judgment · 12 · Linked ones open on LawLens

Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 Section 482

Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 Section 528

Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 10 provisions

Section 189 Section 191 Section 115 Section 118 Section 74 Section 352 Section 351 Section 190 Section 76 Section 3

04Reasoning

The Court found that the two complaints concerned the same incident and that each side accused the other of assault and related offences; charge sheets had been filed against the respective accused persons.

¶ 11–12

The allegations and wound certificates indicated an alleged physical assault, so the Court could not conclude that the proceedings were wholly devoid of criminal allegations.

¶ 13, 15

The pending civil disputes therefore did not, without more, justify quashing. The rival accounts were matters for the trial court to assess in accordance with law.

¶ 13–14