CUTTACK: In a reprieve for senior BJD leader and state minister for Agriculture and Farmers Empowerment Ranendra Pratap Swain, the Orissa High Court has quashed criminal proceedings pending against him for obstructing the movement of trains along with party supporters at Rajathagarh railway station in 2016.
The single judge bench of Justice Gourishankar Satapathy on Monday invalidated the criminal proceedings pending against the Athagarh MLA in the court of Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC), Angul as cognisance of the alleged offence was taken after the statutory period of two years.
Spearheading a protest against the action of Chhattisgarh government for the construction of barrage over Mahanadi river in his constituency, Swain had obstructed the movement of trains on August 3, 2016. But the Railway police registered a case against the senior BJD leader under section 174 (a) of the Railway Act, 1989 after two years, 11 months and six days on July 9, 2019. For the alleged offence, the Act prescribes punishment of imprisonment of up to two years or a fine of Rs 2,000 or both.
After the Railway police, Dhenkanal police initiated criminal proceedings before the court of JMFC, Sundargarh which took cognisance of the offence. Later, the case was transferred to JMFC, Angul after it was notified to try cases relating to MPs and MLAs for offences connected to Dhenkanal and some other districts.
The criminal proceedings was challenged by Swain in the Orissa High Court in 2021. In the August 21 order, Justice Satapathy said while taking cognisance of offence the JMFC, Sundargarh had ignored to address the issue of limitation and had simply taken cognisance of offence and issued process against the accused petitioner ignoring his valuable right which cannot be rectified.
“Since cognisance of offence after the statutory period is otherwise an abuse of process of court and to secure the ends of justice, the impugned order taking cognisance of offence together with the criminal proceeding being unsustainable, is required to be quashed”, Justice Satapathy observed.