Chhattisgarh High Court: Sanjay K. Agrawal, J. refused the application for grant of leave to appeal against acquittal and dismissed the petition in limine.
The factual matrix of the case is that the respondents on 4-5-2013 at 7.15 p.m. entered into the prohibited area without permission and violated the promulgated order of the Government and thereby committed the offence under Section 188 IPC.
The counsel Vikram Sharma appearing for the petitioner submitted that the Judicial Magistrate First Class was absolutely unjustified in acquitting the respondents of the offence under Section 188 IPC on the ground that despite sufficient opportunity, no witnesses were examined to support the case of the prosecution as no reasonable opportunity was granted to adduce evidence.
The Court relied on the judgment titled C. Muniappan v. State of T.N., (2010) 9 SCC 567 and Babita Lila v. Union of India, (2016) 9 SCC 647 held that the offence under Section 188 IPC can be taken cognizance of by the Magistrate under Section 190 CrPC except in accordance with Section 195(1)(a)(i) CrPC and unless complaint in writing is filed by the public officer concerned, on the basis of police report, offence under Section 188 IPC cannot be taken cognizance of by the jurisdictional Magistrate. He further held that this principle has to be given a strict interpretation and not a liberal one and hence trial of the respondents for the offence under Section 188 IPC on the basis of police report and charge-sheet filed subsequent thereto by the State police was absolute without jurisdiction and without authority of law.
In view of the above, application for grant of leave to appeal against acquittal stands refused and the petition dismissed.[State of Chhattisgarh v. Rikki Sahu, 2020 SCC OnLine Chh 110, decided on 14-07-2020]
