The High Court · 2025

" 'Respondents/ComPlainants Petition under section 528 of BNSS praying that in the circumstances stated in the Memorandum of Grounds of Criminal Petition' the High Court may be pleased to call for tne recoras ielating to Charge Sheet in C C No 97/2023' on th;"fii;;i th" ttt Additional lroi"i"i First-Class Magistrate at Mahabubnagar and quash the same as against the petitioner' l.A. NO: 1 oF 2024 Petition under Section 482 of Cr'P C/under Section 528 of BNSS praying that in the circumstances stui"A in the Memorandum of Grounds of Criminal Petition, the High Corrt..y-0" pleased to grant stay of all further proceedings' ;;;;i;;';;p;;rance of tn6 pititione' in c6nnection with the charse sheet in ;. N": SilZiiS, on tne fiieLr the ilt Additionat Judicial First class Magistrate at Mahabubnagar, in so tut ut tn" petitioner is concerned, pending disposal of the Criminal Petition. ThisPetitioncomingonforhearing,uponperusingtheMemorand.u.mof Grounds of criminal petition- anJ upon nJaring the arguments of Sri A.Giridhar Rao Senior counsel ,"p,"."ntin! Sri Palle Sr-inivasa Reddy' Advocate Jor- the Petitioner and the Srt S.rviJJn'ii, AssistantPublic Prosecutor on behalf ot the n"tpl"O"nt No.1 and none appeared for the Respondent No 2' The Court made the following: ORDER a C THE HONOURABLE SMT JUSTICE JUWADI SRIDEVI CRIMI NA L PETITION No .15016 0F 2024 ORDER This Criminal petition is filed by the petitioner_accused No.1 seeki,rg to quash the proceedings against her in C.C.No.97 of 2023 on the file of the learned lll Additional Judicial Frrs.i Class lrlagistrate, Mahabubnagar, registered for the offences under Sections 195(A), 341, 504,506 read with 34 of the lndian penal Code (for short ,lpC,).

02. Fleard Sri A. Giridhar Rao, learned Senior Counsel for the petitioner and Smt.S.tVadhavi, learned Assistant Public prosecutor for the State_respondent No.1. Even after service of notice, none appeared on behalf of the unofficial respondent No.2. perused the material on record.

03. The case of the prosecution, in brief, is that in the year 2003, the marriage of the accused No.2 was solemnized with one Swapna, the sister of respondent No.2. It is alleged that the accused Nos. 1 to 3 subjected the said Swapna to harassment, as a result of which she committed ,".!,ti: t 1' I 2 suicide by hanging. Consequently, a case was registered in Crime No.126 of 2021 and after completion of investigation, the charge sheet was filed and numbered as S C' No 21 of 2022 before the concerned Sessions Judge. lt is further alleged that on 15.02.2023 at about 10:30 hours, when the respondent No.2 and his mother came to the Sessions Court to depose against the accused Nos.l to 3, the petitioner along with the other accused threatened them not to give evidence and further threatened to do away with their lives' Thereafter, at about 13:15 hours, after the respondent No'2 and his mother deposed against the accused, the accused Nos.1 to 3 wrongfully restrained them on the staircase of the Court premises, abused them in filthy language stating that no Court could do anything to them, and again threatened them with dire consequences.

04. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the petitioner-accused No.1 has no connection whatsoever with the alleged offences. lt is contended that the criminal proceedings in Sessions Case No'21 of 2022, insofar as they pertain to the accused No'3 therein, who is the petitioner- , / a |*4.'* "ny' * ..-.-'- =,/,,/ /. 3 accused No.l herein, were already quashed by this Court vide Order dated 2g.03.2023 passed in Criminal petition No.10951 of 2022. Subsequenfly, the said Sessions Case itself culminated in acquittal of the accused Nos.1, 2 and 4 vide Judgment dated 21.09.2023 passed by the learned Assistant Sessions Judge, Mahabubnagar. lt is further submitted that all the allegations leveled against the petitioner-acc:lsed No. 1 are false, frivolous, baseless and have been fabricated solely for the purpose of the present case, lt is also further submitted that there is no incriminating material on record to substantiate the allegations against the petitioner-accused No. 1, and that the contents of the charge sheet, even if taken at their face value, do not disclose the essential ingredients necessary to constitute the offences punishable under Sections 195_A, 341 , 504 and 506 read with Section 34 IpC.

05. On the other hand, learned Assistant public Prosecutor appearing for the state-respondent No.1 contended that there are triable issues and factual aspects to be examined b,7 the learned trial Court and it is not a fit case -,: ,l - -lti.:-)4 L +! 4 .j to quash the proceedings against the petitioner at this juncture and the matter is to be decided after conducting trial by the learned trial Court and prayed to dismiss this Criminal Petition

06. The penal provisions invoked against the petitioner-accused No.1 are Sections 195-A, 341 ,504, and 506 read with Section 34 of lPC. To constitute an offence under Section 195-4 of lPC, a complaint must be filed directly before the Court by a witness or any person who has been threatened with injury to their person, reputation, or property, or that of their close relatives, with the intent to compel them to give false evidence. The police have no authority to directly register such an offence, as the procedure prescribed under Section 195 Cr.P.C. is mandatory. Likewise, to attract the provisions of Section 341 lPC, there must be a clear allegation of voluntary obstruction of a person, thereby preventing them from proceeding in a direction in which they had a lawful right to move. Similarly, the essential requirement of Section 504 IPC is an allegation of intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of public 3r !E+' 5 peace or commission of any other offence. Further, to constitute an offence under Section 506 lpC, there must be an allegatiorr of criminal intimidation, involving a threat made with intent lo cause injury to the person, reputation, or property of another, thereby causing alarm. ln the absence of the aforesaicl essential ingredients, the invocation of these penal provisions against the petitioner_accused No.1 is wholly unsusl:ainable in law.

07. Having considered the submissions advanced on either side and upon perusal of the material available on record, it is evident that the complaint was filed direcfly before the F,olice and not before the competent Court, thereby deviating from the procedure contemplated under Section 195 of the Cr.p.C. Even as perthe allegations in the charge sheet the afleged incident is said to have occurred within the Court premises, immediately prior to the deposition of respondent No 2 and his mother. The charge sheet, which is the outcome of the entire investigation, further reveals that no independent witness was examined to substantiate the allegations, cles;pite the alleged incident having taken place in \ I .in,.r a public place such as the Court premises' Significantly' neither respondent No.2 nor his mother reported the alleged incident before the learned Sessions Judge during the course of their deposition, and such omission is fatal to the case of the Prosecution

08. Considering the facts and circumstances of the case, including the procedural irregularity ln lodging the complaint, and in the absence of any cogent' independent, and reliable material, coupled with the fact that the proceedings against accused No 3 were already quashed and that the Sessions Case ultimately resulted in the acquittal of the accused Nos.1 ,2 and 4, this Court is of the considered view that subjecting the petitioner-accused No'1 to the rigour of trial would amount to an abuse of the process of law. Therefore, the continuation of the criminal proceedings in C.C. No.97 of 2023 on the file of the learned lllAdditionalJudicialFirstClassMagistrate,Mahabubnagar' against the petitioner-accused No.1 is unsustainable' ) I '_/ a 7 09 hccordingly, the Criminal petition is allowed and the proceerdings against the petitioner-accused in C.C.No.97 of 2OZ3 on the file of the learned lll Additional Judicial Firsf g;ur" lVlagistrate, Mahabubnagar, are hereby quashed As a sequel, pending miscellaneous applications, if any, shall starrd closed \ To, SD/. AH KHAN GISTRAR /iTRUE COPY// OFFICER

1. The lll Additicnal Judicial First Class Magistrate at Mahabubnagar. 2. The Station llouse Officer, Ivlahabubnagar llTown police Station, lr/ahabubnag ar District.

3. Two CCs to lhe Public Prosecutor, High Court for the State of Telangana at Hyderabad [{)UT]

4. One CC to Si.i Palle Srinivasa Reddy, Advocate [OpUC] 5. Two CD C;opies NVB l*-;;.i.! I -€'.Atc,g,, -t{af:r. f.ir .:r - 4 HIGH COURT DATED:23109t2025 (", a-) 1l 0 0 0[I :mq * /)r ORDER CRLP.No.15016 of 2024 ALLOWINGTHE CRIMINAL PETITION I , .- - ' ':- r," -,\,1r, . 3_;i, t-. !