Petitioners are the accused who are arrayed before the Judicial Magistrate of Second Class. Moovattupuzha in Crime No. 79 of 1982 (of the Koothattukulam Police Station). The offences alleged against them are under Ss. 143, 149, 121-A and 124-A of the Penal Code and S. 131(1)(b) of the Representation of the People Act. They have approached this court seek its inherent powers to quash the proceedings before the Magistrate on the ground that even on the allegations made against them by the police, they could not be convicted for the offences aforementioned and the continuation of the proceedings before the Magistrate would only be an abuse of the process of court.

2. To appreciate the contentions advanced on behalf of the petitioners it is necessary to take note of the actual complaint made against them. What is stated in the first information is. It is further elucidated that what the people were asked to vote for in the parallel booth was on the question whether they approve of the bourgeois elections.

3. Section 143 of the Penal Code prescribes the punishment for being a member of an unlawful assembly. An assembly of five or more persons is designated as "an unlawful as