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Saturday, June 1

Second Complaint on the same facts and its maintainability

Udai Shankar Awasthi vs. State of U.P. & Anr, Criminal Appeal No. 61 of 2013, Decided on May 9th, 2013


The issue was whether second complaint on the same facts is maintainable. The Hon’ble Supreme Court noted the following case laws:

Shiv Shankar Singh v. State of Bihar & Anr., (2012) 1 SCC 130, the court held:

“It is evident that the law does not prohibit filing or entertaining of the second complaint even on the same facts provided the earlier complaint has been decided on the basis of insufficient material or the order has been passed without understanding the nature of the complaint or the complete facts could not be placed before the court or where the complainant came to know certain facts after disposal of the first complaint which could have tilted the balance in his favour. However, second complaint would not be maintainable wherein the earlier complaint has been disposed of on full consideration of the case of the complainant on merit”.

The Court also noted following case laws:


Pramatha Nath Talukdar v. Saroj Ranjan Sarkar AIR 1962 SC 876;

Jatinder Singh & Ors. v. Ranjit Kaur AIR 2001 SC 784;

Mahesh Chand v. B. Janardhan Reddy & Anr., AIR 2003 SC 702;

Poonam Chand Jain & Anr. v. Fazru AIR 2005 SC 38


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