Somasundaram, J.- Petitioners 1 to 3 in Crl. M.P. No. 87 of 1956 (Accused 5 to 7 in C.C. No. 96 of 1956) on the file of the Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Koilpatti, are the petitioners herein. The fifth accused is a Sub-Inspector of Police and accused 6 and 7 are police constables. The complainant belongs to the village of Athikinar hamlet of Shanmugapuram in the Tirunelveli District. After the Estate Abolition Act, there was trouble between the ryots in the village of Athikinar and the proprietor the Zamindar of Ettiyapuram. Orders under section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure were passed against the complainant and the other residents of the village of Athikinar restraining them from interfering with the cultivation of certain lands belonging to the Zamindar. That there was a dispute between the ryots and the inhabitants of the above village and the Zamindar who is impleaded as the first accused in the above case is clear from the allegations contained in the complaint filed by the complainant. The matter was taken to the Civil Court also and the complainant and the other men were restrained by an injunction from interfering with the possession of the lands belonging to the Zamindar or his lessees.

On 21st April, 1956, the fifth accused, the first petitioner herein, accompanied by two other constables, along with six or seven reserve constables and three or four police constables undoubtedly visited the village of Athikinar coming in a police lorry and a jeep. According to the allegations in the complaint they got down a furlong away from the village, rounded up the womenfolk who were engaged in plucking cotton and took them to the village and presented them before the Circle Inspector. Most of the menfolk ran away on seeing this. The complainant also took shelter in the house of one Valliammal. After getting information that the police and others were trying to break open the door of his house, the complainant alleges, he rushed to his house and then he was beaten by accused 2 to 7 by sticks. He was beaten in the buttocks and on his leg and then he fell down unable to bear the pain and became unconscious and when he recovered consciousness, he alleges, he found himself kept under a margosa tree in the outskirts of the village. It is for causing these injuries to the complainant he has filed this complaint in the above case implicating accused 5 to 7, the Sub-Inspector and two other constables as accused in the case, along with the Zamindar and his clerk, agent and others.

In the sworn statement taken from the complainant this is what he stated:

“The Reserve Police, the Sub-Inspector and Zamindar’s men got down from these vehicles. They gathered together about 50 women who were picking cotton in that area and led them towards the village. On seeing that our menfolk got frightened and ran away, I also went and hid myself in Valliammal’s house in the south street of my village.”

The police filed a charge-sheet in C.C. No. 136 of 1956 against eleven persons for offences under sections 143, 144 and 225-B of the Indian Penal Code. This also is said to have taken place on the same day and at about the same time as the occurrence in respect of which the complainant has filed a complaint against these petitioners and others. The complainant in this case is the fourth accused in the case filed by the police in G.C. No. 136 of 1956.

The petitioners raised a preliminary objection before the Sub-Divisional Magistrate that section 132 of the Code of Criminal Procedure is a bar to the prosecution against them and the complaint, therefore, ought not to be entertained without the sanction of the State Government. The Sub-Divisional Magistrate before whom both the cases had been filed dismissed the petition holding that what is alleged in the complaint filed by the private complainant is entirely in respect of a different action and at a different place and that at that stage the Magistrate was not inclined to hold that the complainant sustain

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