Section 182 IPC proceedings require a complaint from the concerned public servant or administrative superior.

The appellant, sister of the deceased husband of Respondent No. 2, was involved in prolonged matrimonial and inter-family disputes with Respondent No. 2 and her family.

Criminal proceedings were initiated by both sides and were subsequently settled through a settlement deed dated 20 June 2024.

The remaining proceeding was Police Kalendra No. 4 of 2021, alleging an offence under Section 182 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), based on complaints allegedly made by the appellant to various government departments against Respondent No. 2 and her family.

The appellant sought quashing under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (CrPC).

The High Court dismissed the application, holding that an offence under Section 182 IPC, read with Section 195 CrPC, concerned the public servant and the offender and was not extinguished by a private settlement.

The appellant challenged that dismissal before the Supreme Court.

Whether proceedings for an alleged offence under Section 182 IPC could continue when the complaint required by Section 195 CrPC had not been made by the concerned public servant or by a public servant administratively superior to that officer.

Whether the proceedings arising from Police Kalendra No. 4 of 2021 ought to be quashed under Section 482 CrPC in view of the nature of the complaint, the absence of a valid complaint under Section 195 CrPC, and the settlement between the parties.

Section 182 IPC penalises giving false information to a public servant with the intention of causing that public servant to use lawful power to the injury or annoyance of another person.

Under Section 195 CrPC, no court may take cognizance of an offence punishable under Sections 172 to 188 IPC, including Section 182, unless there is a written complaint by the concerned public servant or by another public servant to whom that officer is administratively subordinate.

The statutory requirement is mandatory, and a complaint by an unrelated police officer, who neither received the allegedly false information nor was administratively superior to the relevant public servant, does not satisfy Section 195 CrPC.

The High Court’s inherent jurisdiction under Section 482 CrPC may be exercised to prevent continuation of proceedings where cognizance is legally incompetent and the prosecution is otherwise unsustainable.

The Supreme Court held that the High Court had rejected the application without examining the substance of the complaint.

The allegations concerned complaints allegedly submitted by the appellant to various government departments, but no complaint under Section 195 CrPC had been filed by any officer of those departments or by an administratively superior public servant.

The Officer-in-Charge of the Women Police Station, who initiated the proceedings after Respondent No. 2 complained about the appellant’s alleged false complaints, was neither the public servant to whom the allegedly false statements had been made nor administratively superior to such officer.

Consequently, cognizance could not lawfully have been taken.

The Court also noted that the complaint appeared ill-motivated in the context of the parties’ settled dispute, but the decisive ground was the absence of a valid complaint satisfying Section 195 CrPC.

It directed that no further proceedings be taken; if the appellant had been released on bail, her bail bonds were ordered to stand cancelled.

Pending applications, if any, were disposed of.