Prasad MS v. State of Karnataka
In the High Court of Karnataka
Crl. P. 2693/2019
Before Justice HP Sandesh
Decided on January 12, 2021

Relevancy of the case: Quashing of proceedings and FIR in a case involving the hacking of Income Tax records

Statutes and Provisions Involved

• The Information Technology Act, 2000 (Section 66)
• The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (Section 482)
• The Indian Evidence Act, 1872 (Section 65B)

Relevant Facts of the Case

• The complainant submitted a complaint regarding hacking his Income Tax account through impersonation.
• Thereafter, the police have registered an FIR based on this complaint.
• The petitioners are accused number 2 and 3 in the FIR. The petitioners were only discharging their professional duties to defend the accused before the trial court. The complainant has only mentioned their names in paragraph 4 of the complaint to harass them.
• Through this petition before the High Court, they seek quashing of the FIR against them.

Prominent Arguments by the Advocates

• The complainant’s counsel submitted that he received an intimation for changing his password by entering his mobile number. The matter is still under investigation. Hence, the court should not quash the proceedings.

Opinion of the Bench

• The accused number 2 and 3 have signed a certificate under Section 65B of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872. Also, they appear before the accused in a proceeding going on before the trial court.
• This certificate corresponds to the Income Tax Returns of the complainant for the assessment year 2016-17, 2017-18, and 2018-19. The complainant believes that the accused and petitioners obtained these documents by hacking his income tax account.
• Moreover, including advocates of an opposite party as accused persons in a criminal case is an abuse of process.

Final Decision

• As a result, the court allowed the present petition. Further, it quashed the FIR against the petitioners.

Julia Anna Joseph, an undergraduate student at Christ (Deemed to be University), prepared this case summary during her internship with The Cyber Blog India in January/February 2022.