The fundamental right to protest and the need for explicit allegations and evidence to establish the commission of alleged offences were the central legal principles established in the judgment.

JUDGMENT

Harkesh Manuja, J. - By way of present petition under Section 482 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1908, petitioner has prayed for quashing of FIR No. 903 dated 16.09.2017 under Section 147, 149, 188 & 283 of IPC, registered at Police Station Gurgaon Sadar and all subsequent proceedings arising therefrom.

2. For convenience, relevant extract of FIR No. 903 dated 16.09.2017 registered on complaint of ASI PS- Sadar is being reproduced herein:

'The SHO PS- Gurgaon Sadar Jai hind Sir it is requested that I along with LASI Kailash Rani, Constable Amarjit 2156 in PCR No17 were on round at Sector 38, on phone we received information that some people have blocked the traffic movement on Subhash chowk, when I along with other police officers reached Subhash Chowk we saw that around 10-15 persons had blocked traffic movement on road from Sohna to Gurgaon side and were raising slogan that, "we will block the traffic until the builder returns our money" Then I ASI asked them many times to clear the road but nobody listened so I along with other police officers controlled the 10 men and 2 women involved in the blocking of road and on asking they told their names i.e. Satyapriya Srivastava S/o Agam Swaroop R/o 502 kendriya Vihar Sector 56 Gurgaon, Nitesh Kumar s/o Arun Kumar R/o S-49/18 GF DLF PH-3 GGN, Rajeev Goyal S/o Jagdev Goyal r/o 1256 urban estate Jind, Ajay S/o Trilok Nath R/o 4038/11 Shanti Nagar Hisar, Jitender s/o sukhdev R/o 327 2nd floor Sushant lok Sector-57 Gurgaon, Ritesh S/o Manohar Lal R/o D-7024 Devender Vihar Sector 56 Gurgaon, vanish s/o Vasudev R/o E- 103/43 silver Oaks DLF Gurgaon, Sanjay S/o Mehrbaan singh R/o C-1915 sushant Lok 1 Gurgaon, Ganan Deep s/o Ramesh R/o 405 Golden apartments sector 47 Gurgaon, Suraj s/o Govind Ram R/o A-868 Sushant Lok-1 Gurgaon, Pearl Khan D/o Rafi Khan R/o 103/43 silver Oaks Appartments DLF Phase-1 Gurgaon and Meena Bist W/o Sanjay Bist R/o C-1915 Sushant lok phase -1 Gurgaon. that the above mentioned persons have disobeyed orders of senior police officer and blocked the traffic on road and hence are arraigned U/s 147/149/283/188 IPC."

3. Explaining the brief background of the case, learned counsel for the petitioner submits that petitioner including other accused persons booked a flat on 07.05.2012 with 'Today Homes and Infrastructure Private Limited' in project T-5/ Today Callidora Project against the total sale price of Rs. 84 lakh to be paid in installments and possession was to be delivered in 36 months (3 years). He further submits that at the time of registration of FIR against the petitioner and others, i.e. till 16.09.2017, despite expiry of more than 5 years, possession was not delivered while petitioner and others had paid more than 80% of due amount (approximately Rs 73 Laks) till then. Petitioner and others have been pursuing the matter regarding delay in delivery of their flats with authorities including police officials so as to take action against the builder and register a case of cheating/ fraud against him. It was for this purpose that they visited P.S. Gurgaon Sadar in the morning, though they waited till afternoon, but the SHO did not register any complaint or FIR and rather treated them very rudely. In these circumstances, two of the aggrieved persons had a verbal altercation with the SHO, on which he got angry and registered the present FIR by concocting the story of roadblock against the petitioner and 11 other persons u/s 147, 149, 188 & 283 IPC.

4. On merits, learned counsel for the petitioner submits that though the case registered against the petitioner and other persons is completely false case, however, even if it's content are taken on face value, no offence is made out under the relevant sections. He further contends that aggrieved persons have a right to peaceful protest against the public authorities including police officials and their actions are protected under Article 19 of the Constitution of India and in that eventuality, the provisions of IPC u