STATE OF GUJARAT Vs. PARBATBHAI JODHABHAI RAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Judgment and order dated 3.6.2014 recording acquittal for the respondents for the offences punishable under Sections 323, 341, 504, 506(2) read with Section 114 of the Indian Penal Code (for short " IPC ") as also Section 3(1)(x) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 ( for short "Atrocities Act") in Special Case No. 14 of 2013 (Atrocity) by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Veraval at Junagadh is assailed in this appeal under Section 378 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (for short " Cr.P.C .").

(2.) The incident in question occurred on 12.4.2013 at about 14:30 hrs wherein the accused persons allegedly obstructed the complainant and P.W.3 on the public road demanding the commission from the complainant for the public work of the panchayat which the complainant was administering or managing on behalf of his mother who was the Sarpanch of the Gram Panchayat.

(3.) So far as Section 3(1)(x) of the Atrocities Act is concerned, except the feeble and half-hearted statement that the accused called them "dheda", P.W.1 and P.W.3 have not come out with credible story as to how the offence under Section 3(1)(x) of the Atrocities Act was committed. They have admitted that except the victim and the accused, none-else was present at the scene of offence and thus utterances having not made in public view, no case is made out under the said provision. More importantly, there are no averments in the FIR that the accused are not the members of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes as required by Section 3 of the Atrocities Act inasmuch as, the very opening words of Section 3 indicate that the complaint can be lodged only against the persons not being the members of scheduled caste or scheduled tribes. In Gorige Pentaiah vs. State of Andhra Pradesh & Ors ., [(2008) 12 SCC 531] , the FIR bereft the averment therein that the accused were not the members of SC & ST came to be quashed with the following observations in paragraph No.6: