ORDER :

Annexure-D private complaint and all further proceedings thereon including S.C. No.499 of 2016 on the files of the Sessions Court, Ernakulam, are under challenge in this proceedings under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (the Code). The petitioners who are husband and wife are the accused in Annexure-D private complaint as also in S.C. No.499 of 2016.

2. The first respondent belongs to a Scheduled Caste. The first respondent and the accused who are Government servants are residing in adjacent houses. On 08.06.2015, the first respondent gave an information to Angamaly Police alleging that the accused have insulted and humiliated her at her place of residence on 02.06.2015 by calling her caste name. A crime was accordingly registered by the police against the accused on the same day as Crime No.1115 of 2015 for the offences punishable under Section 294(b) of the Indian Penal Code (the IPC) and Section 3(i)(x) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 (the Act), as it stood then. While the investigation in the case was progressing, on 06.07.2015, the first respondent instituted Annexure-A private complaint before the Court of