Hon'ble Dr. PASAYAT, J.— Leave granted.

2. Challenge in this appeal is to the order passed by a learned Single Judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court dismissing the petition filed under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (in short the ‘Code’). The prayer in the petition was to quash the proceedings in C.C. No. 440 of 1999 and CC No.325 of 2001 on the file of 3rd Additional Judicial First Class Magistrate, Kakinada.

3. Background facts in a nutshell are as follows:

A case was registered against three accused persons including the present appellant for alleged commission of offence punishable under Section 498-A read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (in short the ‘IPC’). Initially, the presence of A-1 could not be secured and therefore court separated the case against A-1 and proceeded the trial against A-2 and A-3. In the said case A-2 and A-3 were acquitted. Thereafter, the present application was filed before the High Court taking the stand that the complainant was not be the legally wedded wife of the appellant as he was already married and, therefore, Section 498-A has no application to the facts of the case.

The High Court dismissed the applic