The Supreme Court of India has quashed an FIR registered under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, observing that the criminal proceedings were an “abuse of process of law” as they arose from a civil dispute and contained allegations contradictory to a civil suit filed by the complainant on the same day.

The Division Bench comprising Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah and Justice K. Vinod Chandran set aside the judgment of the Jharkhand High Court which had refused to quash the FIR.

The core legal issue before the Apex Court was whether criminal proceedings under Sections 3(1)(g) and (s) of the SC/ST Act could be sustained when the allegations in the First Information Report (FIR) were inconsistent with a civil suit filed by the same informant on

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