A.C. Goyal, J. - (1.) Vide this petition under Section 482 Cr.RC., the accused-petitioners have prayed that the FIR No. 144/2000 dated 25.7.2000 registered at Police Station Sanganer Sadar, Jaipur may be quashed and the petitioner may not be arrested in the said matter.
(2.) The facts in brief giving rise to this petition are that the petitioners are running a school at Mansarovar, Jaipur and have got a bus No. RJ-29-P-0086 for the purpose of carrying the students to school. On 22.7.2000 at about 7 p.m. some persons namely Kalu, Ghanshyam and Ors. stopped the bus and demanded some money from the driver and on refusal to do so, they pelted stones. FIR No. 141/2000 was registered at the instance of the accused side at Police Station, Sanganer Sadar under Sections 147, 323, 427 and 379 IPC. On account of this and further on account of enmity with the present petitioners, the non- petitioner No.2 lodged this FIR No. 144/2000 at the same police station under Section 3(X) of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. The contents of FIR No. 144/2000 do not constitute any offence and this FIR was lodged only to harass the petitioners on account of earlier FIR and enmity.
(3.) Learned counsel for the petitioners, relying upon judgment of Hon'ble the Apex Court in State of Haryana and Others v. Bhajan Lal and Others, 1992 Supp. (1) SCC 335 , contended that the allegations made in the First Information Report do not constitute any offence and only to harass the petitioners, this report was lodged and, therefore, to secure the ends of justice and to prevent the abuse of the process of law, this FIR should be quashed. Learned counsel for the respondent No.2 contended that the contents of the FIR prima facie constitute the offence registered by the police and there is no ground to quash the FIR. He relied upon certain judgments. In J.P. Sharma v. Vinod Kumar Jain and Ors., AIR 1986 SC 833 , it was held that allegations if taken to be true making out prima facie case for trial, quashing order of the High Court under Section 482 Cr.P.C. was illegal, Similar view was taken by Hon'ble the Apex Court in Smt. Chand Dhawan v. Jawahar Lal and Ors., 1992 CRI. L.J. 1956 . In AIR 1972 Page 484, the Hon'ble Supreme Court held that the High Court in its powers under Section 561-A of Cr.RC. (1898) will not interfere with the police investigation in a cognizable offence. I have considered the rival submissions. In Para 102 of the judgment in State of Haryana and Ors. v. Bhajanlal and Ors. (supra), the Hon'ble Apex Court observed that if the allegations made in the FIR even if they are taken at their face value do not prima facie constitute any offence, or such report and evidence collected to support of the same do not disclose the commission of any cognizable offence, or the allegations made in the FIR are so absurd and inherently improbable on the basis of which no prudent person can ever reach a just conclusion that there is sufficient ground for proceeding against the accused or where a criminal proceeding is manifestly attended with mala fide, the FIR/proceedings can be quashed. In view of the legal position as stated herein-above the contention of learned counsel for the petitioners cannot be accepted that the contents of FIR No. 144/2000 do not constitute any cognizable offence. It is also relevant to observe here that the statements of some of the witnesses recorded under Section 161 Cr.P.C. support the contents of the FIR. The inherent powers under Section 482 Cr.RC. can be exercised to prevent abuse of the process of court and to otherwise secure the ends of justice. The powers under Section 482 Cr.RC. has to be exercised carefully and with caution.;