Rajasthan HC quashes FIR filed against hospitality giant, its employees
Jul 04, 2020
Jaipur (Rajasthan) [India], July 4 : The Jaipur Bench of the Rajasthan High Court quashed an FIR registered against Marriott India, the Indian subsidiary of hotel operator Marriott International Inc. USA, and its hotel employees.
The order, dated June 29, was passed by Justice A.K. Gaur on a writ petition filed on behalf of Marriott India and its employees by the law firm Kochhar & Co. through its Chairman Rohit Kochhar and partners Inder Gill, Ankur Khandelwal and Nimita Kaul.
According to the petition, the FIR was registered at Police Station, Amer, Jaipur pursuant to a complaint filed by Vikram Sukhani on behalf of the owner of the five star hotel JW Marriott Jaipur Resort & Spa, levelling various false and frivolous accusations against the hotel Operator Marriott India and its employees named therein.
The criminal complaint initiated by Vikram Sukhani falsely and mischievously insinuated that certain employees of the hotel and Marriott India had allegedly conspired and cheated the complainant by misappropriating and siphoning-off monies belonging to the hotel. It was falsely alleged that the said employees conspired with Marriott India to unjustly award bonusses to themselves while at the same time denying statutory bonus payable to other employees of the hotel, the plea states.
According to the petitioners, the disputes between the parties were purely civil in nature. The false and fabricated accusations included in the FIR were a complete sham and a nefarious ploy by the complainant Vikram Sukhani to arm-twist and coerce Marriott India to vacate the hotel, and agree to highly unreasonable settlement terms, for resolving contractual disputes between the complainant and Marriott India relating to operations and management of the hotel.
Later complainant Vikram Sukhani agreed to resolve matters by executing a Settlement Agreement dated June 20 with Marriott India. The High Court order relied upon the said Settlement Agreement as well as the letter dated June 22 submitted by Vikram Sukhani to the SHO, Amer Police Station, District Jaipur City (North).
Before filing the petition before the Rajasthan High Court, the hotel employees named in the FIR had approached the courts of competent jurisdictions to seek protection against any coercive measures impacting their personal liberty, being taken by the Rajasthan Police pursuant to the FIR registered against them.
Appropriate relief was granted to the aggrieved persons by the respective courts of law, in the form of transit bails.
To put a quietus to the abuse of process of law indulged in by the complainant, Marriott India and its employees invoked the extra-ordinary inherent jurisdiction vesting with the Rajasthan High Court and filed a criminal miscellaneous petition seeking quashing of the FIR.
While allowing the said petition on the very first hearing, the High Court inter-alia took cognizance of the settlement arrived at between the complainant and Marriott India. Relying upon the judgement of the Supreme Court in the landmark judgement of Narendra Singh and others vs State of Punjab and others, Justice A.K. Gaur allowed the petition and quashed the FIR dated June 11 registered at Police Station Amer.
