The trial court's dismissal based solely on police findings without proper consideration of the evidence presented is improper under procedural law.

Order on Board

11.06.2025

1. This appeal is directed against the impugned order dated

17.01.2023 passed by the Court of learned Special Judge (Atrocities) Act Kabeerdham, District Kabeerdham (C.G.) in Unregistered Complaint Case /2021, whereby the complaint case filed by the appellant/complainant under Sections 3(1)(a), (b) and (y) of the Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribe Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989 r/w Section 341 of the IPC has been dismissed at motion stage without taking cognizance against the respondent/accused.

2. Brief facts of the case is that the appellant, who is the complainant, filed a report against respondents No. 2 to 8 with the AJAK Kawardha Police Station, the Superintendent of Police's ofÏce, and the District Magistrate. However, despite her application, no action was taken, and the police did not register First Information Report (FIR), even though a prima facie case of a non-bailable, cognizable offense was apparent from the report. Therefore, the petitioner filed a complaint case on 22.12.2022, against the respondents before the Special Judge (Atrocities), Kabirdham, detailing the incident in paragraphs 4 and 5 of the complaint. The complaint alleges that the accused persons abused her using caste-based slurs.

3. The learned Special Judge, upon receiving the complaint, proceeded in accordance with Section 202 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and recorded the preliminary statement of the complainant and her companion. The complainant/appellant examined 04 witnesses in support of her case, and all the witnesses testified about the incident that occurred with the appellant. After recording the statements of the witnesses, instead of passing an order for the registration of the criminal complaint case, the learned Special Judge/trial Court called for a report from the Station House OfÏcer of Police Station AJAK Kawardha, District Kabirdham. The report was to determine whether any offense had been registered based on the petitioner's application. The Police submitted a detailed report alongwith documents and statements of witnesses, stating that there was a land dispute between the parties and an incident had occurred in 2019. The report also mentioned that revenue cases were pending and further stated that cognizable offenses were not attracted.

4. The learned trial Court relied on the Police Report and the documents attached to it, without considering the averments made in the application of the appellant/complainant. Additionally, the Court did not consider the documents attached to the application, which clearly indicated that the accused persons had abused her with filthy language, knowing well that the complainant/appellant belonged to a Scheduled Tribe and was a widow lady. The Court also failed to consider that the accused persons had tried to block her road from their house, thereby committing a serious offense. The application was dismissed without considering or reading the evidence available on record. It is pertinent to mention that when the appellant made a complaint to the police authorities, they failed to register an offense against the accused persons. This led to the filing of the complaint case, and evidence was recorded before registration. However, the said evidence was not discussed at the time of passing the impugned order. The complaint case was dismissed solely based on the Police Report, which is against the mandate of Section 200 of the CrPC. Hence, this appeal.

5. Learned counsel for the appellant submits that the learned trial Court erred in passing the impugned order by dismissing the application / complaint case filed by the appellant on relying the Police Report dated 09.06.2022, he also failed to consider the fact that wh