RAMESH AND ORS. Vs. YASHBIR SINGH AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioners have preferred this petition for quashing of the complaint filed under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, the summoning order dated 05.06.2013 and the order dated 11.11.2013 passed in revision by Additional Sessions Judge, Bhiwani.

(2.) LEARNED counsel for the petitioners contends that the occurrence is said to have taken place in a liquor vend which is not a public place nor there was any intentional insult and merely calling a person by a caste would not constitute the offence under Section 3(1)(x) of the Act and in the absence of any of the ingredients, the summoning order, revisional order and the complaint should be quashed. It was urged that the only witness to the occurrence is the son and nephew of the complainant and there is no medical record to corroborate the statement and the summoning order has been passed without application of mind and the allegations do not constitute any offence. He had placed reliance on Mukesh Kumar Saini v. State (Delhi Administration), : 2002(1) RCR (Criminal) 242, Kuldip Raj Mahajan v. Hukam Chand, : 2008(1) RCR (Criminal) 370, Jai Parkash and others v. State of Haryana and another, : 2011(3) RCR (Criminal) 217, Dr. Onkar Chander Jagpal and another v. Union Territory, Chandigarh and another, Rajinder Kumar v. State of Haryana,, 2002(4) RCR (Criminal) 245 and Amrik Singh and others v. State of Punjab and another,, 2011(5) RCR (Criminal) 646.

(3.) THE circumstances leading to the filing of the complaint at the behest of Yashveer needs to be noticed briefly. The complainant belongs to a scheduled caste category while the accused belong to Jat and Kumhar caste. One of the petitioners is a resident of the same village as the complainant. The allegations are that all the accused knew that the complainant was a Harijan. The complainant's son had committed suicide leaving a suicide note regarding which an FIR was registered by the complainant against Prithvi Singh and some other persons. The allegations were that accused were helping Prithvi Singh and were threatening the complainant and were asking him to close the proceedings. They asked him to leave the village. The complainant had alleged that in the last plan he was the Sarpanch of the village. The brother of accused No. 1 and relative of accused Nos. 2 and 3 were involved in taking illegal possession of the panchayat land, due to which accused were nursing a grudge against the complainant and were finding an opportunity to teach him a lesson.