JUDGMENT :

Amol Rattan Singh, J.

Vide this petition, the petitioner seeks to invoke the jurisdiction of this court under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, to quash FIR no.0115, dated 14.02.2021, registered at Police Station Hansi, District Hansi, wherein it is alleged that offences punishable under Sections 153-A and 153-B of the IPC, as also Section 3 (1)(u) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities), Act, 1989 (hereinafter referred to as the Act), have been committed. [Subsequently, as submitted before this court, an offence punishable under Section 3(1)(s) of the Act has also been added in the FIR.]

The grounds spelt out in the petition for quashing the FIR, can be essentially summed up as follows:-

(i) That respondent no.2 (complainant) 'does not have clean hands' and has misinterpreted the issue to be one as an act in violation of the provisions of the Act;

(ii) That respondent no.2 has no locus standi to register the FIR as the word in question (bhangi) as was used by the petitioner, was neither directed at him nor at any other member of the dalit community; and therefore the motive of the said respondent, in getting the FIR register