HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court has quashed an FIR registered against three junior civil judges accused under Section 3(1)(x) of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
A bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice J Sreenivas Rao was hearing a writ petition filed by the junior civil judges seeking quashing of the FIR.
In its order, the bench observed that the complaint against the petitioners was filed maliciously as a counterblast, constituting a clear abuse of the legal process. It remarked: “Respondent civil judge lodged the complaint against the petitioners maliciously as a counterblast, and the same is a clear abuse of process of law.” The court applied the principle laid down in the State of Haryana v. Bhajan Lal to justify the quashing of the FIR.
The petitioners, selected as junior civil judges in 2013, were undergoing training at the Andhra Pradesh Judicial Academy in Secunderabad and Bengaluru in 2015. During their training at the Karnataka Judicial Academy, the respondent allegedly misbehaved with the petitioners. Following the incident, the petitioners submitted a written complaint to the director of the AP Judicial Academy, which was forwarded to the erstwhile High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad.
Subsequently, the respondent (R5) a junior civil judge complained against the petitioners, leading to the registration of an FIR under the SC/ST Act. The petitioners approached the High Court to quash the proceedings.
The High Court noted that the complaint by the respondent junior civil judge was lodged after a report was submitted by the Director of the AP Judicial Academy to the Registrar (Vigilance) based on the petitioners’ complaint. The bench observed that the timing and context of the complaint indicated malice and retaliatory intent.
The court also referred to the AP government’s decision to remove respondent junior civil judge and another individual, S. Kalyan Chakravarthy, from service after examining the charges against them. This decision was based on recommendations from the erstwhile High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad.
Highlighting the malicious nature of the FIR and the gravity of charges against the respondent junior civil judge, the court concluded that the proceedings against the petitioners were unwarranted.
Advocate N Naveen Kumar represented the petitioners, while Special Government Pleader P Sridhar Reddy appeared for the respondents.