The Punjab & Haryana High Court had been asked to determine what constitutes the offence of mischief under Section 425 Indian Penal Code (IPC).The Court stressed that to prove mischief without dispute willful damage must occur to someone else's property causing its value or usefulness be reduced.Mere loss is not enough of itself. A criminal intent that can be proven must also be there. Rather, all those alleged wrongs in the complaint, Justice Manisha Batra went on, were without specific details or proof. Not just any such information matter of fact but none at all was available to back up the claim that the house had been damaged. No photographs, videos or documents were produced showing any increase in value of the land due to improvements made by construction. The Court observed that the complainants had been pursuing civil remedies in respect of the contentious land. It held that seeing a civil dispute as crime constituted an abuse of legal process.