The Madras High Court has quashed criminal proceedings against 5 persons who had allegedly raised various slogans against Prime Minister for announcing Demonetization.

The Single Bench of Justice N. Sathish Kumar observed that continuing the prosecution on shaky or without any materials would be clear abuse of the process of law.

In this case, Advocate I.Periaswamy appearing for the petitioners had submitted that the prosecution was launched with false allegations and that even when the entire prosecution case is taken at a face value, the same would not constitute any offence and continuing the prosecution is nothing but abuse of process of law.

On the other hand, Additional Public Prosecutor E.Raj Thilak argued that the accused had unlawfully assembled and caused disturbance to the public, thereby, they were prosecuted.

The Court observed thus "Even as per the FIR, it is not the case of the defacto complainant that the petitioners along with other accused have unlawfully assembled and used force or violence and hence, offences under sections 143 of IPC is not attracted. Further it is not the case of the prosecution that the accused have used criminal force to deter public servant from discharging his official duty to attract the offence under section 353 of IPC and section 7 [1] [a] of Criminal Law Amendment Act."

The Court held that mere launching of FIR by the prosecution itself is not sufficient to conclude that offences were made out.

"…this Court is of the view that mere launching of FIR by the prosecution itself is not sufficient to reach to the conclusion that offences are made out and the materials collected by the prosecution do not support for proving the case and continuing the prosecution on shaky or without any materials is clear abuse of process of law.", the Court held.

Accordingly, the Court quashed the FIR against the petitioners.

Cause Title- Jegan @ Ellamaran v. State

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Madras High CourtJustice N Sathish KumarQuashing of FIR

Ashish Shaji