Madhu Purnima Kishwar. File.
| Photo Credit: GANESAN V
The Delhi High Court has quashed a 17-year-old attempt to murder case against academician and activist Madhu Kishwar, observing that the FIR was “maliciously motivated.”
The order, passed on October 16, came while allowing Ms. Kishwar’s plea seeking to quash an FIR lodged against her in June 2008 for offences of attempt to murder, voluntarily causing hurt, and criminal intimidation under the erstwhile Indian Penal Code.
The FIR related to an altercation between Ms. Kishwar and members of the Basoya family on December 31, 2007, when she was photographing alleged unauthorised constructions in the city for her human rights organisation, Manushi.
Initially, Ms. Kishwar had filed an FIR against the Basoya family, alleging that they had attacked her during the same incident. A trial court later convicted the accused persons in that case in 2019.
The court said setting the criminal law machinery in motion only for the reason that the complaint discloses commission of cognisable offence would be an abuse of the process of the court.
“Even if the allegations of the complainant are taken at their highest, considering the complainant’s conviction in a case arising out of the same incident, it can at best be considered as an act of self-defence or an altercation,” Justice Amit Mahajan said.
The judge added that “the subject FIR appears to be in the nature of a defence and a maliciously motivated counterblast to the FIR… for wreaking vengeance upon the petitioner.”
Published – October 29, 2025 10:59 pm IST
