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Informist, Monday, Sept. 7, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court Monday held that a criminal case against a company for offences requiring "mens rea" cannot be quashed merely because the investigating agencies have not identified or arraigned a natural person as a party alongside the company as an accused. The court rejected Sanofi India Ltd.'s plea to quash a case relating to criminal conspiracy and cheating on allegations of the company receiving undue favours from a scientific officer of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre on supply of pharmaceutical products.

 

The court said that in most circumstances, "mens rea", or criminal intent, can be averred through the surrounding facts and conduct without being tied to a specifically named individual. Thus, where the surrounding facts and circumstances, taken as a whole, disclose the possibility that a corporation acted with the requisite "mens rea", that disclosure is not defeated merely because no particular individual has been identified as its source, it said.

 

A complainant filing a first information report against a corporation often only knows that someone within the corporation committed the act in question, without any means of knowing who did the act, the court said. To an extent, this may hold even once the investigation is complete, it said. The investigating agency may not always be able to identify the individual actually responsible, yet may still, based on other circumstances, arrive at the conclusion that the corporation committed the offence with the requisite "mens rea", it said. 

 

The bench of Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra said that the considerations that should ordinarily weigh while determining whether the allegations disclose commission of any offence, or whether they amount to mere bald allegations, would remain the same where the accused is a corporation. However, as a corporation is a juristic person, it is not sufficient to state or allege that the corporation committed the act or possessed the requisite mens rea, the court said.

 

While identification and arraignment of a natural person is not necessary, the allegations must, at least on the face of it, reveal that some natural person or persons acted on behalf of the corporation, such action is referable to the offence in question, and the surrounding circumstances of such actions do not render the existence of "mens rea" patently absurd or inherently improbable, it said. Where the allegations do not reveal these things, the proceedings would be liable to be quashed, it said.

 

On a prima facie reading of the charge sheet and the material on record, the court said it was evident that natural persons acted on behalf of Sanofi India in relation to the offences in question, and that the surrounding circumstances give rise to the possibility that these acts were undertaken with the requisite "mens rea". This is sufficient at this stage, and nothing further needs to be examined, it said. Consequently, on this basis, it cannot be said that the court ought to have quashed the proceedings against Sanofi India, it added.

 

The case has its genesis from Sanofi India supplying pharmaceutical products for a rare materials project at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. It was alleged that the scientific officer had conspired with various pharmaceutical companies such as Sanofi India to procure medicines at inflated rates and in quantities exceeding the requirements. After investigation, the charge sheet was filed in 2017 against the scientific officer and Sanofi India. However, no employee or official of Sanofi India was arraigned as an accused in the charge sheet.

 

Monday, shares of Sanofi India Ltd. ended at INR 3,122.00 on the National Stock Exchange, down 1.2% from Friday.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

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