Telangana High Court
Md. Imtiyaz vs The State Of Telangana on 20 January, 2021
Bench: K.Lakshman
THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE K.LAKSHMAN
CRIMINAL PETITION No.6849 of 2020
ORDER:
This Criminal Petition is filed under Section 482 of
Cr.P.C. to quash the proceedings in Crime No.510 of 2020,
pending on the file of Hanmakonda Police Station, Warangal
District against the petitioner/accused. The offences alleged
against the petitioner are under Sections 328, 270 and 273 of
IPC.
2. Learned counsel for the petitioner as well as the learned
Assistant Public Prosecutor would submit that the subject
matter is squarely covered by a common order in Chidurala
Shyamsubder v. State of Telangana1 rendered by the High
Court of Judicature at Hyderabad for the State of Telangana
and the State of Andhra Pradesh, and placed copy of the said
judgment for perusal.
3. In Chidurala Shyamsubder's case (supra), a learned
Single Judge of the High Court, following the guidelines laid
down by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in State of Haryana v.
Bhajan Lal2, held that the Police are incompetent to take
cognizance of the offences punishable under Sections 45 and
59(1) of the Food Safety and Standards (FSS) Act, 2006,
investigating into the offences along with other offences under
the provisions of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, and filing
Crl.P.No.3731 of 2018 & batch, decided on 27.08.2018
1992 Supp. (1) SCC 335
charge sheet is grave illegality, as the Food Officer alone is
competent to investigate and to file charge sheet following the
Rules laid down under Sections 41 and 42 of FSS Act,
whereas, in the present case, the Police have registered the
crime for the offences under Sections 270 and 273 of IPC and
Section 20(2) of the COTPA Act. Therefore, the said
proceedings in Crime No.510 of 2020 against the petitioner
herein are contrary to the principle held by the learned Single
Judge of the High Court in Chidurala Shyamsubder (supra)
and, accordingly, the same are liable to be quashed.
4. In view of the above submission, the present Criminal
Petition is allowed in terms of the judgment in Chidurala
Shyamsubder (supra), and the proceedings in Crime No.510
of 2020 of Hanmakonda Police Station, Warangal District, are
hereby quashed against the petitioner/accused.
5. It is submitted by the learned counsel for the petitioner
that the seized property is in the custody of Police,
Hanmakonda Police Station and sought direction to the
Station House Officer, Hanmakonda Police Station, Warangal
District, to return the seized property to the petitioner.
6. Since the proceedings in Crime No.510 of 2020 are
quashed against the petitioner/accused, the Police,
Hanmakonda Police Station, Warangal District, are directed
to return the seized property i.e., 5 Jarda packets, 21 packets
of Royal Jarda, 39 boxes of Navajeetan Kimam, 8 boxes of
Kashmeeri Kimam, 3 boxes of Rajsri Kimam, 6 big packets of
Baba Jarda, Neelgiri Jarda packets and 93 packets of JK
Jarda, all worth of Rs.71,100/-, to the petitioner on verifying
the documents with regard to ownership of the said property.
Miscellaneous petitions, if any, pending in this Petition, shall
stand closed. There shall be no order as to costs.
________________________
JUSTICE K.LAKSHMAN
Date: 20.01.2021
DV
