Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 – ss.3(1)(r) or Section 3(1)(s) – “any place within public view” – As per the complainant when he was in his office the accused came there for an enquiry from the complainant however, on not being satisfied, he started abusing him in the name of his caste and insulted him – Thereafter, his colleagues came there, pacified the accused and took him away – Allegations in the FIR, if made out a case that the offence was committed in public view: Held: No – To be a place ‘within public view’, the place should be open where the members of the public can witness or hear the utterance made by the accused to the victim – If the alleged offence takes place within the four corners of the wall where members of the public are not present, then it cannot be said that it has taken place at a place within public view – Even as per the FIR, the incident took place within the four corners of the chambers of the complainant – His colleagues arrived at the scene after the occurrence of the incident – Since the incident did not take place at a place which can be termed to be a place within public view, the offence would not come under the provisions of either Section 3(1)(r) or Section 3(1)(s) of the SC-ST Act – Allegations in the FIR even if taken at their face value and accepted in entirety do not prima facie constitute an offence either u/s.3(1)(r) or under s.3(1)(s) of the SCST Act – Impugned judgment set aside – Chargesheet and all proceedings pursuant thereto quashed and set aside – Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 – s.482. [Paras 11, 14, 15, 18, 21] Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 – s.482 – Power under, to be exercised sparingly with circumspection and in the rarest of rare cases – Discretion – Exercise of:
Held: Court will not be justified in embarking upon an enquiry as to the reliability or genuineness or otherwise of the allegations made in the FIR or the complaint – However, the court would be justified in exercising its discretion if the case falls under any of the clauses carved out by this Court in Paragraph 102 in the case of Bhajan Lal – Present case falls under the first category, listed in Paragraph 102 in the case of Bhajan Lal – Impugned judgment dismissing the petitions filed by the Appellant u/s.482, set aside – Chargesheet and all proceedings pursuant thereto quashed and set aside. [Paras 17, 18, 21]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Headnotes prepared by: Divya Pandey. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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