THE HONOURABLE SMT. JUSTICE K. SUJANA CRIMINAL PETITION No.16380 of 2024

ORDER:

This Criminal Petition is filed under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, seeking to quash the proceedings against the petitioner in Crl.M.P.No.138 of 2024 in Crime No.6514 of 2021, on the file of the learned I Additional District and Sessions Judge, Medak, Sangareddy District, registered for the offences punishable under Sections

135 and 138 of the Electricity Act, 2003.

2. Heard Sri P.V.L. Bhanu Prakash, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner, and Sri N. Sreedhar Reddy, learned Standing Counsel for the Southern Power Distribution Company of Telangana, appearing on behalf of respondent No.2.

3. Learned counsel for the petitioner contended that the procedure prescribed under the Electricity Act, 2003, has not been properly followed by the respondents and that the complaint should have been filed before the jurisdictional Magistrate and thereafter on committal Special Court has to take the file, but in the present case, the complaint was directly filed before the I Additional District and Sessions Judge, Medak, which is contrary to the procedure established by law. Therefore,