IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) TUESDAY, THE FIFTEENTH DAY OF SEPTEMBER TWO THOUSAND AND NINE PRESENT THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE G.BHAVANI PRASAD CRIMINAL PETITION NO : 4218 of 2009 Between: Maganti Vijayalakshmi and others. . .Petitioners And The State of A.P., rep. By Public Prosecutor and others .. Respondents THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE G.BHAVANI PRASAD CRIMINAL PETITION No.4218 of 2009 ORDER : Heard Sri Sampath Prabhakar Reddy, learned counsel representing Sri E.Ajay Reddy, learned counsel for the petitioners and Sri C.Nageswara Rao, learned Public Prosecutor for the respondents. 2) The petitioners are facing prosecution for an offence punishable under Section 126 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 on a charge sheet filed before the Court by the Inspector of Police, Prakash Nagar Police Station, Rajahmundry. The Inspector of Police conducted investigation on the report given by the supervisor, Model Code of Conduct Team for Rajahmundry Parliamentary Constituency and filed the charge sheet. The offence under Section 126 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 is punishable under Sub-Section 2 thereof with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years or with fine or with both. Under the first schedule to the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, such an offence is non-cognizable and no other provisions under the Representation of the People Act, 1951 or the Code of Criminal Procedure are brought to notice, which enable the Police to investigate into such an offence and file a charge sheet in violation of Section 155 of the Code of Criminal Procedure under which no police officer shall investigate such non-cognizable offences without the order of the Magistrate having power to try or commit the case for trial. In view of the violation of Section 155(2) of Code of Criminal Procedure, which is mandatory, the Court should not have taken cognizance of the alleged offence against the petitioners and the criminal proceedings should be therefore quashed as an abuse of process of law. 3) Accordingly, the further proceedings in C.C. No.156 of 2009 on the file of II Additional Judicial Magistrate of First Class, Rajahmundry, East Godavari District are quashed and the Criminal Petition is allowed accordingly. __________________ G. BHAVANI PRASAD, J September 15, 2009 KSH