1. The petitioners have sought the quashing of criminal proceedings for offences under Sections 323 read with Sections 134, 160, 109 and 506 I. P. C. and the order dated 18-9-1979 of the Judicial Magistrate First Class, Kaithal, dismissing the application of the petitioners for quashing of the proceedings.

2. The case set up in the petition is that the criminal Court in question was not competent to take cognizance of the offences on a police report, which itself was illegal, as the investigation on which it was based was illegal in that the offences being non-cognizable the police authorities were not competent to investigate unless prior permission of the Magistrate as envisaged in sub-section (2) of Section 155, Criminal Procedure Code, was obtained, which in this case was never obtained.

3. Before dealing with the case as set up on behalf of the petitioners, I may notice the relevant facts which can be stated thus; that on 2-7-1977 Krishan Lal submitted information to Police Post, Cheeka, which was taken down in the Daily Diary. The substance of the information as disclosed in para 1 of the petition is as follows:

"That I Krishan Lal applicant mentioned in column No. 2