SELVARAJ Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioners have brought forth this criminal original petition seeking to quash the proceedings in S. T. C. No. 168 of 2002 pending on the file of the learned Judicial Magistrate, Palladam.

(2.) ADMITTEDLY, the respondent police filed a charge sheet under Sec. 160 of the Indian Penal Code before that Court stating that on 8. 6. 2001 at about 10. 00 A. M. on Palladam to Mangalore Road at R. V. Nagar in a public place within the Palladam Police Station limits, the accused 1 to 4 noted in the charge sheet, formed into A and B Party respectively, fought with each other and committed an affray. The same was originally taken by the lower Court as S. T. C. No. 1032 of 2001. As per the charge sheet, the petitioners herein are shown as A Party, and one Jothimani and Samboornam were shown as B Party. After the lower Court took cognizance of the matter, the said Jothimani and Samboornam admitted the offence and Paid the fine. Thereafter, insofar as the petitioners, who, according to the charge sheet, constituted the A Party, the case was renumbered as S. T. C. No. 168 of 2002, which the petitioners seek to quash in this O. P.

(3.) THE learned Counsel for the petitioners would submit that in order to attract affray under Sec. 160 of the Indian Penal Code, three ingredients are necessary; that firstly, there should be two or more persons who indulge in a fight, and secondly, such a fight must be in a public place, and thirdly, the said fight must disturb the public place; and that in the instant case, no one of the said three ingredients was attracted. Added further, the learned Counsel that the Investigating Officer, who enquired both the Parties, should have either filed the charge sheet only against the aggressors or referred the case itself; but, in the instant case, even after finding the opposite party as aggressors, they have shown the petitioners as A Party and the opposite party as B Party, and on that ground, it has got to be quashed.