IMPORTANT POINT
Cognizance of offences under the PC & PNDT Act requires a complaint from the appropriate authority, and failure to comply renders the proceedings void.

ORDER :

1. Present petition has been filed under Section 482 Cr.P.C. seeking quashment of the complaint which has not been filed by the appropriate authority or Officer authorized and the order taking cognizance passed by the trial court in the Complaint Case No. 582/2013 and has challenged the entire proceedings initiated in the said case pending before the Judicial Magistrate First Class, Bilaspur.

2. Brief facts of the case is that the petitioner is a pathologist practicing in Bilaspur for the last many years and for the purpose of pathological diagnosis, he has installed the Sonography machine. In the year 2011, a criminal complaint was preferred against the petitioner for commission of the offence punishable under Section 3 & 4 of the Pre-conception & Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994 (hereinafter ‘PC & PNDT Act’) read with Section 23 and 25 of the Pre-Conception & Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994 (hereinafter ‘PC & PNDT Act’).

3. Vide order dated 29.07.2011, cognizance has been taken by the learned trial court and the petitioner appeared before the learned trial court and applied for bail. Thereafter the petitioner was granted bail and the entire proceedings were vitiated on the ground that the complaint was not filed by the appropriate authority according to the notification issued by the State Government.

4. Contention of the counsel for the petitioner is that the trial court has committed an error of law by registering the complaint against the petitioner and as such the same is not maintainable. He submits that the definition of ‘appropriate authority’ under Section 17(2) of the aforesaid Act which reads as under:

“The State Government shall appoint, by notification in the Official Gazette, one or more Appropriate Authorities for the whole or part of the State for the purposes of this Act having regard to the intensity of the problem of pre-natal sex determination leading to female foeticide.”

5. It is argued by learned counsel for the petitioner that cognizance of offences could not have been taken by the learned Trial Court under PC & PNDT Act in the absence of any complaint made by Appropriate Authority or any officer authorized on behalf of it, as per clear mandate of Section 28 of the Act, and cognizance taken on the basis of a charge-sheet filed by the prosecution was impermissible and untenable in law. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the cognizance which has been taken under the PC & PNDT Act, complaint has not been filed by the competent authority under Section 28 of the PNDT Act. He submits that the complaint itself is void ab initio and without jurisdiction for which no cognizance can be taken. He placed his reliance in the case of Raj Kumar Badwani vs. Collector, Ex-Officio Chairman PC & PNDT Act, CG and Another, 2016 (4) CGLJ 413, wherein in Para 16, it has been held as under:

“16. The judgment of High Court of Madhya Pradesh in Dr. Manvinder Singh Gill (supra) was put to test before the Supreme Court by the State of Madhya Pradesh vide Special Leave to Appeal (Crl.) No. 2226/2014. The Supreme Court vide order dated 03.08.2015 while dismissing the said SLP of State has affirmed the judgment of MP High Court holding that unless a complaint is made by an “appropriate authority” or by an “Officer authorized” by the State Government, the same cannot be held to be a valid complaint. It has further approved the stand of the MP High Court that the officers who were authorized by the appropriate authority to help in monitoring an effective implementation of the PCPNDT Act cannot be construed as an officer authorized under the Act for the purpose of Section 28 of the PCPNDT Act.”

6. Contention of the counsel for the petitioner is that in the instant case, the complaint has been preferred by the Additional District Magistrate and according to the notification issued by the State Government, the appropriate authority for the distr