On Wednesday, the Karnataka High Court dismissed a case of Schedule Caste/Schedule Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. While quashing the criminal petition, the court observed that the permitting of investigation would amount to an abuse of the process of law. This case was filed by Sri V Jagadish Bhatija, son of vashdevdas, on 25th May 2024 through his advocate Sushant Venkatesh Pai.
This petition was listed before a single-judge bench consisting of Hon’ble Justice M. Nagaprasanna. The hon’ble justice while hearing the petition had observed that the story in the complaint is quite bizarre and if the court permitted further investigation, then the same would be an abuse of law.
Background of the case
The present petition was filed before the high court to quash a complaint filed by Rekha Sayannavaar under section 3 of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. This act was legislated to prevent atrocities against the members of the SC/ST community. Section 3 of this act provides for the offence of atrocities. It states that “whoever, not being a member of SC or an ST, intentionally insults or intimidates with intent to humiliate a member of a Scheduled caste or a Scheduled Tribe in any place within public view shall be punished.
In the petition, the petitioners asserted that Sayannavar had been their tenant since June 2018; nevertheless, because she had fallen behind on her rent payments, eviction proceedings as well as a plea for rent recovery had to be started. They claimed that despite the civil court’s ruling in their favour, Sayannavar disobeyed the order, leading to the filing of an execution petition.
The execution court had issued a warrant way back in March 2024 for eviction. This order was affected in the last week of March. Subsequently, Rekha Sayannavar filed a complaint against the petitioner alleging that he had come to her house, a few days back, to ask for rent and had abused her. This case was last heard on 30th June and the court had ordered to extend the interim relief to develop if granted.
Judgment
After reviewing the records, the court noticed that the present case is a case of misuse of the SC/ST Act. In this case, the tenant is misusing the provision of the SC/ST act for his benefit and to evade the payment of rent after taking the premises on rent.
The court further observed that the complaint’s registration of the crime as a counterblast and taking revenge for what she has endured as a result of the delivery warrant being issued against her is a result of the relevant court’s order. Further, it was noticed that the requirement of section 3 of the SC/ST Act was not fulfilled. The offence under Section 3(1)(r) and Section 3(1)(s) of the SC/ST act as applicable in the present case required that the insult should be made in a public place. However, the facts provided in the complaint disclose that the abuse of Ms. Rekha occurred within the four corners of the rented premises.
The court further observed that the complaint glaringly ignores the petitioners’ presence in the house at that time. Because the complaint is itself so frivolous, additional proceedings shouldn’t be allowed to proceed. Therefore, this petition reeks of a strange account. And the same is liable to be quashed.
