10. Admittedly, there is a civil dispute between the parties regarding title over the property and two civil suits are pending between them. The respondent/complainant claiming title over the property, by virtue of a sale agreement said to have been entered into with Ms. Annapoorni Ammal. According to A2, he purchased the property for a valuable consideration from one Mr. Baskar, who had earlier purchased the property from Ms. Annapoorni Ammal, and he has been in possession of the property and only the respondent/complainant is trying to interfere with his possession and hence a civil suit has been filed and the same is pending and only to harass the petitioners a false complaint has been filed.
11. Earlier, a police complaint filed by the respondent/complainant has been investigated and closed as mistake of fact. Subsequently a protest petition has been filed and the same was also closed by the concerned jurisdictional Magistrate. Admittedly the earlier police complaint has been closed after investigation as mistake of fact and the protest petition filed by the respondent/complainant was also closed by the learned Judicial Magistrate. In the meantime, the present private complaint has been filed for the very same occurrence on the very same allegations. Perusal of the original records it could be seen that after filing of the present complaint, recording the sworn statement of the respondent/complainant, the learned Judicial Magistrate without even applying his mind simply put a rubber
stamp in the docket sheet stating that the case is taken on file in C.C.No.11 of 2016 for offence under 147, 294(b), 324, 354 and 506(i) of I.P.C., and issued summons to the accused. The learned Judicial Magistrate has mechanically issued process without even being satisfied that a prima facie case is made out for proceeding against the accused, which is impermissible in law. It is well settled that before taking cognizance of the offence and issuance of process under Section 204 Cr.P.C. the learned Judicial Magistrate is expected to apply his mind and find out whether any prima facie case is made out against the accused, which is totally absent in this case. That apart, it is only a civil dispute between the parties and both the parties have already approached the civil Court and their respective civil suits are pending adjudication. Now, it is for the Civil Court to decide the title dispute between them.
Quashed the matter.
PARTY: Sheshadri vs. T.R.Renuka – Crl.O.P.No. 13799 of 2016 – 19.01.2022.
