ORDER :

L.VICTORIA GOWRI, J.

Preface:

1. Criminal law is an instrument to maintain public order and discipline. At the same time, it is equally a settled principle that the criminal process cannot be permitted to operate as a punitive mechanism by itself. Delay, lethargy, and arbitrariness in investigation corrode the foundational guarantees of personal liberty and fair procedure enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. Courts exercising inherent jurisdiction are duty-bound to intervene when prosecution degenerates into persecution.

2. The present Criminal Original Petition raises a serious concern regarding inordinate delay in investigation, belated filing of a final report after more than a decade, and invocation of grave penal provisions on the basis of vague and omnibus allegations, particularly when the complainants themselves are police officials.

3. This Criminal Original Petition has been filed under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, praying to call for the records relating to S.C. No.48 of 2025 on the file of the learned V Additional District and Sessions Judge, Madurai, and to quash the same as illegal, arbitrary, and an abuse of process of law.

Case of the prosecution:

4. The prosecution case, as emerging from the First Information Report and the final report, is that on 11.02.2012, the third respondent, who was then serving as a Grade–I Police Constable attached to Umachikulam Police Station, along with other police personnel, was returning after searching for certain accused in Crime No.31 of 2012.

5. It is alleged that while proceeding via M. Chathirapatti, the petitioners were obstructing traffic by placing their two-wheelers in the middle of the road. When questioned, the petitioners are stated to have abused the police personnel using filthy language, waylaid the police van, forcibly pulled the third respondent and other constables out of the vehicle, throttled them, threatened them with death, caused injuries, damaged the rear windscreen of the police vehicle, and fled from the scene.

6. Based on the said complaint, a case was registered for the offences under Sections 147, 341, 294(b), 332, and 307 of the Indian Penal Code, read with Section 3 of the Tamil Nadu Property (Prevention of Damage and Loss) Act, 1992.

Procedural history:

7. Though the alleged occurrence took place on 11.02.2012, no final report was filed for more than a decade. Alleging inaction, the petitioners approached this Court earlier by filing Crl.O.P.(MD) No. 13345 of 2023 seeking quashment of the FIR.

8. When the said petition was taken up on 21.06.2024, the learned Additional Public Prosecutor submitted that the investigation had already been completed and that a final report had been filed and taken on file as P.R.C. No.7254 of 2023. Recording the said submission, this Court closed the petition, granting liberty to challenge the final report.

9. Subsequently, when the petitioners applied for certified copies of the charge sheet, the application was returned with an endorsement stating that the case was still at FIR stage. Alleging suppression and misrepresentation, the petitioners filed a petition to recall the earlier order. During the pendency of the recall petition, the final report came to be filed, culminating in the present sessions case in S.C. No.48 of 2025.

Grounds for quash:

10. The principal grounds urged by the petitioners are:

(a) The inordinate and unexplained delay of more than twelve years in filing the final report is violative of Article 21 of the Constitution of India.

(b) The prolonged pendency of the FIR has caused severe prejudice to the petitioners, affecting their livelihood and employment prospects due to the stigma attached.

(c) The allegations are vague, omnibus, and bereft of specific overt acts attributable to individual accused.

(d) The medical records disclose only simple injuries, thereby negating the ingredients of Sections 332 and 307 IPC.

(e) The essential ingredients of unlawful assembly und