Sunisha Anand v. State of Haryana and Another · 2026 INSC 530

Facts

The appellant's parents held interests in land, and she acquired a claimed right through succession after her father's death. The complainant, who asserted occupation of certain parcels, alleged that powers of attorney executed by the appellant's mother led to conveyances of land, including land said to have been transferred to the government before those later transactions.

The first FIR referred to the appellant but did not place her among the accused. A subsequent FIR named her in connection with essentially the same transfers, and a civil suit concerning the disputed land was already pending at the complainant's instance.

Issues

The High Court had declined to interfere with the criminal case, reasoning that a land dispute and civil proceedings did not erase alleged criminal elements in the preparation and execution of the powers of attorney. The appeal required the Supreme Court to examine whether the FIR actually alleged conduct by this appellant capable of sustaining criminal proceedings, as distinct from a disagreement over title and the extent of the property conveyed.

The appellant's later inclusion made comparison of the two FIRs material. The issue was not whether every amendment of a criminal accusation needs an entirely separate offence, but whether the records disclosed a factual development explaining her changed position from a person mentioned to a person accused.

Submissions recorded

The appellant submitted that she had not been named as an accused in the first FIR and that investigation had produced no new material warranting her inclusion in the later one. She relied on an authority concerning supplementary reporting without new evidence, asking the Court to treat the repetition of allegations as insufficient to sustain the case against her.

The State opposed quashing on the ground that the investigation had disclosed the appellant's role after the initial registration. Its position was that the later decision to array her as an accused followed the details revealed during that process, even though the Court would ultimately find the material inadequate on the specific record before it.

Reasoning

The Court examined the earlier and later allegations, finding that the second account repeated the essential property accusation without identifying newly uncovered conduct attributable to the appellant. It noted a further reference to a jamabandi which the judgment described as nonexistent, and did not consider that reference a sufficient explanation for the appellant's inclusion.

The Court then considered the claimed fraud in the powers of attorney. Since the complaint itself asserted execution by the appellant's mother and by the appellant as her daughter, the Court found the description of those instruments as fake or fraudulent unsupported by the factual account it had been asked to examine.

Nor did the reference to a jamabandi in a sale deed, or an alleged conveyance beyond the vendors' title, establish criminal liability of the appellant merely because the complainant claimed to occupy the affected land. The judgment observed that any complaint about a vendor conveying more than the vendor owned would, on the facts alleged, concern the purchaser, while the complainant's own land claim was already before a civil court.

Decision

Concluding that the FIR disclosed no basis for alleging criminality against the appellant, the Supreme Court allowed her appeal and quashed FIR No. 588 at Faridabad Central Police Station and all consequential proceedings insofar as they concerned her. The decision did not dispose of the civil suit, decide the ownership dispute or quash proceedings in favour of every other person connected with the conveyances.

Its holding is tied to the actual contents of the accusation and the appellant's individual position. A pending civil case was relevant, but the decisive finding was that criminal law could not be used to further that dispute against a person whose alleged criminal act had not been identified.