Judgment Oral:

01. Through the medium of the present petition filed on 27.04.2023, eleven petitioners have come to invoke inherent power of this Court as reserved under section 482 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 thereby seeking quashment of a criminal complaint preferred by the respondent on file No. 63/Comp. pending before the court of learned Sub-Judge, Special Mobile Magistrate, Rajouri and a cognizance taken thereof in terms of an order dated 29.01.2022.

02. The petitioners have alleged that the filing of criminal complaint by the respondent is sheer abuse of process of law at her end by coming forward with bald, reckless, frivolous and sweeping allegations against twelve persons in her one and a half page complaint wherein she is alleging commission of offences under sections 341/323/504/506/354 IPC by a purported incident of 27.01.2020 and therefore, the entertainability of the very said complaint by the Magistrate is nothing but a mechanical and non-judicial application of mind on his part.

03. The petitioners came forward with a background in the context whereof they were so booked by the respondent. The petitioner No. 1-Ram Krishan is an elected Sarpanch of tehsil Potha, the petitioners No. 2 to 4 are brothers of the petitioner No. 1, the petitioner No. 5 is son of the petitioner No. 1 who is said to be pursuing his law degree CRM(M) No. 372/2023 Page 3 of 5 course in Dogra Law College, Jammu. Petitioners No. 6,7 and 8 are women and are wives of the petitioner No. 1, 3 and 4 whereas the petitioners No. 9,10 and 11 are the neighbourers of the petitioner No. 1.

04. The respondent is said to be a person who suffered loss in Sarpanch election at the hands of the petitioner No. 1, and therefore, is nursing injured feelings for giving vent to which the respondent has resorted to abuse of process of law which is forthcoming from the fact that earlier she has got a criminal case registered against the petitioner No. 5 and the petitioners No. 2’s son by registration of FIR which stands challenged before this Court in CRM(M) No. 787/2022.

05. The petitioners have come forward with a detailed factual narration to show as to how the filing of the complaint by the respondent alleging commission of offences so mentioned is nothing but abusing process of law with impunity.

06. When this Court examines the complaint, even this Court is left struggling to figure out as to how twelve persons can be named as accused by purported reference to one para fact narration relating to alleged incident of 27.01.2020 so as to convince any judicial magistrate ex-facie to consider entertaining of the complaint without bothering to question the complainant, which in the present case is respondent, as to how the role of each and every named accused person was figuring in the incident of 27.01.2020 when the array of accused persons includes women also. Even if the alleged incident of 27.01.2020 is said to have been taken place in the manner as alleged, the fact of the filing of the complaint by respondent on 29.01.2022 on file No. 63/Comp. before the court of learned Sub-Judge, Special Mobile Magistrate, Rajouri is itself a pointer to the fact that the filing of the complaint is nothing but an afterthought and malicious act on the part of the respondent to subject the twelve persons to sheer harassment.

07. The petition, thus, warrants to be accepted. This Court, in exercise of its inherent powers, accordingly quashes complaint on file No. 63/Comp. pending before the court of learned Sub-Judge, (Special Mobile Magistrate), Rajouri.

08. The petition is accordingly, disposed of.

09. A copy of this order be forwarded by the Registrar Judicial, Jammu to the court of learned Sub-Judge, Special Mobile Magistrate, Rajouri, for taken on record and consigning the complaint to record as quashed.

10. The detailed order is following the order dated 18.12.2024 vide which the petition was ordered to be allowed as is hereby being done.