Point of Law: Inherent powers under Section 482 CrPC though wide have to be exercised sparingly, carefully and with great caution.

ORDER :

Petitioners are before this Court calling in question registration of Crime in Crime No.70 of 2023 for offences punishable under Sections 3(1)(r) and 3(1)(s) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act, 2015.

2. Heard Sri P.P. Hegde, learned Counsel appearing for the petitioners and learned High Court Government Pleader for the State. Respondent No.2-Complainant though served, remains unrepresented.

3. Sans details, facts in brief, are as follows:

Petitioners are the owners of a premises located in Flat No.42, Tower-6, Pebble Bay, No.74, 1st Main Road, RMV 2nd Stage, Dollars Colony, Bangalore -560 094. Petitioners desirous of letting the said premises on rent and the second respondent – complainant desirous of taking the premises on rent enter into a rental agreement on 21.06.2018, per month for usage of the said premises and Rs.16,461/-as maintenance directly payable to the Pebble Bay Owners’ Association. A security deposit of Rs.10/-lakhs was paid to the petitioners to be returned interest free. It transpires that towards the Rs.10/-lakhs security deposit, two cheques were handed over by the complainant one for Rs.3/-lakhs and another for Rs.7/-lakhs. The second cheque was dishonoured for want of sufficient funds. The petitioners then register a complaint against the complainant for offences punishable under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881. The said case is pending in C.C.no.315/2019.

4. The second respondent defaulted in payment, neither the rent was paid nor the maintenance to the Association. Therefore, she has caused multiple defaults. By the time the agreement expired, the complainant was in due of Rs.15,45,733/-as no rent was paid. A legal notice was caused upon the complainant for eviction, which is also served on the complainant. Despite service of notice, no payment was made. They were constrained to initiate proceedings before the learned Sessions Judge in O.S.No.4119/2020, seeking recovery of rent and delivery of vacant possession of the premises. The complainant throughout the said period was working as a Member of the Third Additional Bangalore Urban Consumer Commission.

5. The concerned Court passes its judgment and decree on 01st December, 2022 directing the second respondent to vacate and handover the vacant premises to the hands of the petitioners within three months from the date of the decree.

The respondent No.2-Complainant failed to comply with the order passed by the concerned Court, dated 01st December, 2022. Therefore, the second petitioner files an Execution Petition in EP No.661 of 2023 to get the order dated 01st December, 2022 executed as passed in Original Suit No.4119 of 2020. A delivery warrant, then, was issued on 10th March, 2023 seeking eviction of the respondent No.2 from the premises owned by the petitioners. The jurisdictional police was also directed to provide required assistance to ensure the delivery warrant executed.

6. In terms of what was directed by the concerned Court on 29th March, 2023, the Court Bailiff, with the assistance of jurisdictional police, seek to execute the delivery warrant. Therefore, it appears that the Bailiff had to wait all day on 29th March, 2023 for the purpose of executing the delivery warrant. The execution is then over on the evening of the said day i.e. on 29th March, 2023.

7. Later the respondent No.2 registers a crime on 29th March, 2023 alleging an incident said to have happened on 26th March 2023. The incident was, hurling of abuses by the petitioners against the complainant in the house of the complainant. The complaint then becomes a crime in Crime No.70 of 2023 for the afore-quoted offences. It is the registration of the crime that drives the petitioners to this Court in subject petition.

8. The learned Senior Counsel takes this Court through the documents appended to the petition seeking to demonstrate gross misuse of the provisions of Atrocities Act in gross abuse of the process of the