A VEERABHADRAN CHETTIAR Vs. E V RAMASWAMI NAICKER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a revision against the order of the Sessions Judge of Tiruchirapalli division refusing to order further inquiry in a case in which the First Additional First Class, Magistrate of Tiruchirapalli dismissed the complaint under Section 203, Criminal P. C.

(2.) A complaint was laid by the petitioner herein against the respondents for offences under Sections 295 and 295-A. I. P. C. The complaint is that accused 1 broke the mud image of Ganesa in public at the Town Hall maidan on 27-5-1953 at 5-30 p. m. So far as the offence under Section 295-A is concerned, sanction of the Government is necessary under Section 196, Criminal P. C., and as no such sanction was obtained, the trial Court was perfectly justified in stating that he could not take cognizance of that offence.

(3.) As regards the offence under Section 295, I. P. C., what is stated by the trial Court is that the mud figure of Ganesa alleged to have been broken by accused 1 was not an object held sacred or worshipped by any class of persons, that simply because it resembled the God Ganesa held in veneration by a section it could not become an object held sacred, that even Ganesa idol abandoned by the people as unworthy of worship loses its sanctity and it is no longer an object held sacred by any body, since such given up idols are found in several places of defilement. It further observed that it is not an offence if a person breaks any such abandoned idol and that therefore the breaking of the mud figure of Ganesa does not amount to an offence under Section 295, I. P. C. Respondents 2 and 3 are said to have abetted respondent 1. The question is whether on the facts stated above an offence under Section 295, I. P. C. has been made out. Section 295, I. P. C. reads as follows: