The abuse of process of court and exceptional circumstances for entertaining a second complaint.

JUDGMENT

(Prayer: Criminal Original Petition filed under Section 482 Cr.P.C., to call for the records pertaining to the charge sheet in C.C.No.57 of 2020 pending on the file of the learned District Munsif cum Judicial Magistrate, Peraiyur and to quash the same sofar as the petitioners are concerned.)

1. This Criminal Original Petition has been to quash the charge sheet in C.C.No.57 of 2020 pending on the file of the learned District Munsif cum Judicial Magistrate, Peraiyur, insofar as the petitioners are concerned.

2. The petitioners are arraigned as A.1 and A.2 in the private complaint lodged by the respondent herein. Originally, there was a property dispute between the petitioners and the respondent herein while surveying the land. Pursuant to the same, both the petitioners as well as the respondent lodged complaints. On the complaint lodged by the petitioner, F.I.R has been registered in Crime No.154 of 2015 for the offences under Sections 147, 341, 294(b), 323, 427, 355 and 506(i) of I.P.C as against the respondent and his family members. After completion of investigation, the Inspector of Police, T.Kallupatti Police Station, Madurai filed a charge-sheet on the complaint lodged by the petitioners and the same has been taken cognizance in C.C.No.72 of 2016 on the file of the learned District Munsif cum Judicial Magistrate, Peraiyur and it is pending for trial. However, on the complaint lodged by the respondent as against the petitioners, the Inspector of Police, T.Kallupatti Police Station, Madurai District registered the F.I.R in Crime No.155 of 2015 for the offences under Sections 294(b), 323, 354 and 506(i) of I.P.C and closed the same as 'mistake of fact'. The respondent was duly served the referred charge-sheet notice in R.C.S.No.20 of 2016 in the year 2016 itself. However, the respondent failed to file any protest petition on the closure report in Crime No.155 of 2015. After a period of four years, in the year 2020, the present impugned private complaint filed under Section 200 of Cr.P.C without filing any protest petition on the closure report.

3. Heard the learned counsel appearing for the petitioners and the learned counsel appearing for the respondent and perused the materials available on record.

4. In this regard, it is relevant to rely upon a judgment of this Court in the case of A.Krishna Rao Vs, L.S.Kumar reported in 1998 (I) CTC 329. The relevant portions of the judgment are extracted hereunder:

“In the present case, the police have filed the referred charge sheet as 'mistake of fact' it, seems the Magistrate has accepted the R.C.S. It is not the case of the respondent herein that the Magistrate has not accepted the R.C.s. filed by the police. In such circumstances, when the Magistrate has accepted the R.C.S. the second complaint should be filed only after setting aside the order passed by the learned Magistrate in the referred chargesheet. However, the respondent herein has not taken any such action and instead had filed a second complaint which the learned Magistrate has taken cognizance. It has been held in the above decisions that taking cognizance in the second complaint, makes the same not maintainable. I have no hesitation to follow the said view, and as such it has to be held that the second complaint which is pending before the learned Judicial Magistrate No. 2, Wallajapet, in CC No.274 of 1994 is not maintainable and the proceedings have to be quashed.”

5. One more judgment of this Court to which reliance can be placed is the case of Dr.Parthasarathy Vs. Rukmani and another reported in CDJ 2016 MHC 009, wherein this Court has held as follows:

“16. This Court also in the case of Bhanwarlal Sharma vs. K.V.Sathyanarayanan and others, reported in 2012 MLJ (Crl) 57, by referring to various judgments, has rendered a finding as under:

"25. We are unable to appreciate the submissions made on behalf of the petitioner, since the law with regard to the filing of a second complaint is now crystallised. It i