Ramkishan Dhakad vs The State Of Madhya Pradesh
2021 Latest Caselaw 216 MP

               The High Court of Madhya Pradesh
                       MCRC.2300/2021
        (Ramkishan Dhakad & Ors. vs. State of M.P. & Ors.)

                                  1

Gwalior, dated 25.02.2021

       Shri Rajiv Shrivastava, learned counsel for the petitioners.

       Shri Avneesh Singh, learned Public Prosecutor for respondents

No. 1 and 2-State.

Present petition under Section 482 of CrPC has been filed

seeking quashment of FIR registered against the petitioners at Crime

No.31/2020 in Police Station A.J.K., District Shivpuri for offence

under Sections 323, 294, 506 and 34 of the IPC and Sections 3(1)(r),

3(1)(s) and 3(2)(Va) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes

(Prevention of Atrocities) Act (hereinafter referred as "SC/ST Act").

Brief facts of the present case are that on 30/11/2020, the

complainant lodged an FIR at Police Station A.J.K., District Shivpuri

to the effect that on 29/11/2020 at about 8:00 am, when he was sitting

near his house along with his cousin brother Parmal Jatav, the

petitioners came there and due to previous enmity, started uttering foul

language and stated ^^pejk okys ;gka D;ks oSBk gS^^ On opposing the same,

petitioner No. 1 Ramkishan slapped him on his right cheek. Thereafter,

Rameshwar Dhakad, Dinesh Jatav and Parmal Jatav saved him. After

that, all the petitioners left the place of incident saying they will kill

him.

It is submitted by learned counsel for the petitioners that the

petitioners have been falsely implicated. They have not committed any The High Court of Madhya Pradesh MCRC.2300/2021 (Ramkishan Dhakad & Ors. vs. State of M.P. & Ors.)

offence. No case is made out against the petitioners under Section 3(1)

(r) and 3(1)(s) of the SC/ST Act as the case is based on old enmity

between the parties. It is further submitted that the place of incident is

not a public place and words uttered are not the word under 3(1)(r)(s)

of the SC/ST Act. Earlier, on 18/9/2020 and 13/11/2020, two F.I.Rs.

had been lodged by petitioner No. 1 Ramkishan against the

complainant of this case, which are annexed at Annexures P-2 and P-3

respectively, in counter-blast to which present FIR has been lodged by

the complainant on 30/11/2020. Before the registration of present FIR,

two complaints were also filed by the petitioners before the

Superintendent of Police, Shivpuri to the effect that the complainant

may try to falsely implicate them in false case as they are not

compromising in the cases registered against the complainant. Copy of

the aforesaid complaints are filed at Annexures P-5 and P-6. It is

further submitted by learned counsel for the petitioners that as there

was previous enmity and present FIR is the counter-blast to the

aforesaid complaints/F.I.Rs. lodged by the petitioners against the

complainant of this case. In support of his submissions, learned

counsel for the petitioners relied upon the judgments passed by this

Court in the cases of Nirbhay Singh vs. State of M.P., [2010 (1)

MPLJ 207 MP], Swaran Singh & Ors. vs. Through Standing

Counsel & Anr., [2009 (1) MPLJ 503] and various other judgments The High Court of Madhya Pradesh MCRC.2300/2021 (Ramkishan Dhakad & Ors. vs. State of M.P. & Ors.)

and prayed to quash the FIR registered at Crime No. 31/2020 in Police

Station A.J.K., District Shivpuri and its all consequential proceedings.

Per contra, learned counsel for the State has opposed the

submissions made by learned counsel for the petitioners and has

submitted that the case against the petitioners are registered under

Sections 323, 294, 506 and 34 of the IPC and Sections 3(1)(da), 3(1)

(dha) and 3(2)(Va) of the SC/ST Act wherein the petitioners abused the

complainant and uttered caste related words to him. It is further

submitted that petitioners No. 1 and 3 have criminal record of around

10 cases. Hence, prayed for rejection of this petition.

Heard learned counsel for the rival parties and perused the

material available on record.

Sections 3(1)(r) and 3(1)(s) of SC/ST Act read as under:-

"(r) intentionally insults or intimidates with intent to humiliate a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe in any place within public view;

(s) abuses any member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe by caste name in any place within public view"

The Supreme Court in the case of Hitesh Verma vs. State of

Uttarakhand & Anr., [Criminal Appeal No. 707/2020 (Arising out

of SLP (Criminal) No.3585/2020, Date of Judgment: 05/11/2020]

has observed that all insults or intimidations to a person will not be an The High Court of Madhya Pradesh MCRC.2300/2021 (Ramkishan Dhakad & Ors. vs. State of M.P. & Ors.)

offence under the SC/ST Act unless such insult or intimidation is on

account of victim belonging to Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribe.

Further, the Supreme Court in the case of Khuman Singh vs.

State of Madhya Pradesh, [2019 SCC Online SC 1104] has held as

under:-

"15. As held by the Supreme Court, the offence must be such so as to attract the offence under Section 3(2)

(v) of the Act. The offence must have been committed against the person on the ground that such person is a member of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe. In the present case, the fact that the deceased was belonging to "Khangar"-Scheduled Caste is not disputed. There is no evidence to show that the offence was committed only on the ground that the victim was a member of the Scheduled Caste and therefore, the conviction of the appellant-accused under Section 3(2)(v) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act is not sustainable."

On perusal of the FIR, it is apparent that the offence has been

committed due to some previous enmity and not just because the

victim/complainant belonged to a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled

Tribe and the incident occurred just in front of the house of the

complainant.

So far as other Sections of IPC are concerned, there is only

allegation against petitioner No. 1- Ramkishan is of slapping the The High Court of Madhya Pradesh MCRC.2300/2021 (Ramkishan Dhakad & Ors. vs. State of M.P. & Ors.)

complainant.

In view of above, it appears that the prosecution launched

against the petitioners is an abuse of the process of court and therefore,

in terms of the decision of the Apex Court in the case of State of

Haryana & ors. Vs. Bhajanlal & ors. [1992 (1) SCC 335], this court

deems it appropriate to quash the FIR against the present petitioners.

Resultantly, the petition filed under Section 482 of CrPC is

allowed. The FIR registered at Crime No. 31/2020 in Police Station

A.J.K., District Shivpuri for offence under Sections 323, 294, 506 and

34 of the IPC and Sections 3(1)(r), 3(1)(s) and 3(2)(Va) of the SC/ST

Act and all consequential proceedings thereto are hereby quashed.

Certified copy/ e-copy as per rules/direction.

      ALOK KUMAR
      2021.02.27
      09:28:06
      -08'00'
      11.0.8                               (Rajeev Kumar Shrivastava)
AKS                                                 Judge