The main legal point established in the judgment is that for an offence under Section 3(1)(r) of the SC & ST Act, the insult or intimidation should be on account of the victim belonging to Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe and should be in any place within public view. The court also emphasized the need to consider the overall circumstances leading to the initiation/registration of the case in cases of abuse of process or personal vendetta.

JUDGMENT :

DEEPAK GUPTA, J.

1. Prayer in this petition filed under Section 482 Cr.P.C. is to quash FIR No. 74 dated 29.04.2017 (Annexure P-1), registered under Section 3 of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 [hereinafter referred as ‘the SC and ST Act] at Police Station Moga City, District Moga, Punjab and all other subsequent proceedings thereof.

2. FIR was lodged on the complaint of Ashok Kumar Safri (respondent N: 3), President of Valmiki Sabha, Moga, who along with various other officers/officials of the Municipal Corporation, Moga, came to the police station, alleging that on 16.02.2017 at about 10.30 a.m., in a meeting of officers/official of the M.C. Moga, accused Suresh Sood (petitioner herein) used caste related words by stating that he will take action against chuhras and the officers mentioned in the FIRs got registered by him in various police stations and shall teach a lesson to the chuhras and bhangis as to how the duties are performed, thus disturbing the office discipline.

3............

(i) It is contended by learned counsel for the petitioner that FIR in question is nothing but a counter blast of various writ petitions, contempt petitions and other petitions filed by the petitioner before this High Court against the officials/officers of the Municipal Corporation, who are the complainant in the present FIR. The FIR has been got registered with mala-fide intention to pressurize him (petitioner) to withdraw the cases filed by him. Petitioner has given details of various petitions filed by him from time to time against the officials/officers of the Municipal Corporation, Moga. It is contended further that due to filing of the various writ petitions/contempt petitions by him during the period from 2008 to 2015, he was even threatened by the employees of the Municipal Corporation, Moga to withdraw those cases or to face dire consequences, regarding which had made complaint dated 29.08.2015 (Annexure P-8) to the various authorities. On the basis of information provided by the Municipal Corporation, Moga, petitioner had sent representation to the Chief Minister, Punjab, informing that vehicles being used by the Sanitation Branch of Municipal Corporation, Moga are neither registered nor insured nor the same were being driven by the persons having valid driving licence and as the Municipal Corporation employees came to know about the said representation, they went on illegal strike on 20.07.2016 and raised demand to register the FIR against him (petitioner).

(ii) Learned counsel for the petitioner has further drawn attention towards photographs (Annexure P-15 and P-16) by contending that in a pre-planned manner, the Municipal Corporation employees/complainant party on 21-22.07.2016 dumped huge garbage at the gate of petitioner’s shop and house, regarding which representation (Annexure P-19) dated 23.07.2016 was made to the various authorities. On 26.07.2016, petitioner was compelled to approach this Court by filing CWP No. 15087 of 2016 to direct the officials of the Municipal Corporation, Moga including the Commissioner to restore liberty and quality of the life of the petitioner by removing the garbage dumped by the striking employees of the Municipal Corporation in front of his residence and shop. Necessary directions were issued by this Court vide order dated 29.07.2016 (Annexure P-20), but as the directions were not complied with, contempt petition bearing COCP No. 2108 of 2016 was to be filed by the petitioner on 05.09.2016 for getting removed the dumped garbage and it is only thereafter that the garbage was removed. The petitioner also lodged FIR No. 242 dated 16.12.2016 under Section 269 IPC at Police Station City South, regarding the aforesaid incident, but despite giving specific names, police registered the FIR against unknown persons. On coming to know about the registration of FIR No. 242 of 2016, the employees of the Municipal Corporation started threatening the petit