New Delhi, July 19 -- The Supreme Court has strongly criticised the Allahabad High Court for directing film producer Shailesh Kumar Singh to pay Rs 25 lakh to a complainant as a precondition for referring a cheating FIR dispute to mediation, despite it being a purely civil matter.
A Bench comprising Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice R Mahadevan quashed the FIR registered against Singh, co-founder and production head of Karma Media and Entertainment LLP, calling the High Court's approach "disturbing" and contrary to settled law on quashing criminal proceedings.
"We are quite disturbed by the manner in which the High Court has passed the impugned order. The High Court first directed the appellant to pay Rs 25 lakh to the complainant and there...