The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Wednesday quashed a lower court case against Renault India and Anamallais Motors, Madurai. The parties had sought to quash the case against them after their representatives were summoned by a judicial magistrate based on a private complaint.
A private complaint was filed by R. Subbiah of Madurai, who claimed that his new Renault car had certain old auto parts. He approached the dealer for replacement, after he came to know from his mechanic that there were old parts.
Subsequently, a private complaint was preferred with the Judicial Magistrate, Tirumangalam. Taking cognisance of the complaint, summons were issued, which was challenged by the respondents.
Justice V. Bharathidasan observed that before taking cognisance of an offence, it must be concluded that there was sufficient ground available in the complaint or other materials filed along with it for proceeding against the accused.
An order passed by a judicial magistrate should reflect whether the magistrate had applied his mind and was satisfied with the material available on record.
Also, while issuing summons, though elaborate reasons were not required, the magistrate should indicate application of mind and state the reasons for issuing summons. In the present case, the order passed for issuing summons was bereft of any reasons, the court said.
In the instant case, the material available on record did not show that they had acted with any criminal intent. In the absence of any express provisions creating vicarious liability, the parties could not be made liable, the court said.
The court set aside the summons and quashed the private complaint.
