The Supreme Court has set aside the charge under Section 420 IPC against Accused No. 2, who had been prosecuted for cheating in connection with a disputed land sale in Madhya Pradesh. Allowing the criminal appeal on 25 November 2025, a Bench of Justices Manoj Misra and Ujjal Bhuyan held that the essential ingredients of the offence were not made out against the accused.
The case arose from a complaint filed by the purchaser (respondent), who alleged that the accused, acting as a power-of-attorney holder for the vendor (Accused No. 1), executed a sale deed in 2012 despite an existing civil suit over title to the land. While the High Court had earlier quashed the forgery charge under Section 468 IPC, it refused to interfere with the cheating charge.
The Supreme Court, after examining the complaint, the 2012 sale deed and the Power of Attorney, found no material suggesting that the accused had misrepresented facts, suppressed pending litigation, or acted with dishonest intent. The Bench noted that the sale deed itself contained a clause assuring indemnification by the vendor in case of title defects, and there was no allegation that the accused approached or induced the complainant to purchase the property.
The Court emphasised that criminal liability for cheating requires evidence of a guilty mind, which was absent in this case. Mere existence of a civil dispute over title, without proof that the appellant was aware of it, could not justify prosecution.
Consequently, the Court quashed the Section 420 charge against the accused, affirming the High Court’s earlier decision to drop the Section 468 charge. The appeal was allowed, and all pending applications were disposed of.
Appearances:
For the Petitioner: Mr. Nipun Saxena, Adv.; Ms. Astha Sharma, AOR; Mr. Sanjeev Kaushik, Adv.; Mr. Simranjeet Singh Rekhi, Adv.; Mr. Anirudh Gotety, Adv.; Ms. Deepali Dabas, Adv.; Ms. Aadya Pandey, Adv.; Ms. Monal Prasad, Adv.; Ms. Debatmaja Ghosh, Adv.
For the Respondent: Mr. Pashupathi Nath Razdan, AOR; Ms. Maitreyee Jagat Joshi, Adv.; Mr. Astik Gupta, Adv.; Mr. Akanksha Tomar, Adv.; Mr. Umesh Babu Chaurasiya, Adv.; Mrs. Manjula Chaurasiya, Adv.; Mr. Pawan Rai, Adv.; Mrs. Sampurna Nand Rai, Adv.; Mr. Dharmendra Kumar Sinha, AOR
