HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE RAJA ELANGO CRIMINAL PETITION No: 4051 OF 2008 Dated 17-6-2010 Between: Ramella Bhaskara Venkata Subba Rao and others. …Petitioners. And: State of A.P. represented by Public Prosecutor, A.P. High Court, Hyderabad and another. …Respondents. HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE RAJA ELANGO CRIMINAL PETITION No: 4051 OF 2008 ORDER: This Criminal Petition is filed seeking to quash the proceedings in C.C.No.321 of 2007 on the file of the learned III Additional Judicial First Class Magistrate, Kakinada, East Godavari District for the offence under Sections 498-A I.P.C. Petitioners herein are A.1 to A.3 respectively. 3rd petitioner is the sister of 1st petitioner while 2nd petitioner is the daughter of 3rd petitioner. It is alleged that on 24-7-1993, the marriage of the defacto complainant with the 1st petitioner was performed. Thereafter, the 1st petitioner used to harass her mentally and physically demanding to give divorce to facilitate him to marry another woman. Later, the 1st petitioner left her at Kakinada with the abetment of the petitioners 2 and 3 by harassing her. On the report given by the defacto complainant, I Town Police, Kakinada registered a case in Crime No.118 of 2007 and in that connection, the proceedings in the above C.C. are pending. Heard the learned Counsel for the petitioners and the learned Public Prosecutor. It is not necessary to go into the entire facts of the case. The only issue to be decided in this case is whether the prosecution against petitioners 2 and 3 is sustainable in law in respect of the offence under section 498-A I.P.C. Before going into the merits of the case, it is pertinent to note that the 1st petitioner filed O.P.No.583 of 2004 on 13.8.2004 before the Family Court, Hyderabad seeking for divorce. On the other hand, the defacto complainant filed O.P.55 of 2004 seeking restitution of conjugal rights and the same was decreed exparte on 28.8.2006 by the learned Senior Civil Judge, Peddapuram. On that, the 1st petitioner filed a petition seeking condonation of delay of 267 days vide I.A.S.R.No:2128 of 2007, dated 1.5.2007 along with a petition for setting aside the exparte decree vide I.A. (SR) No:2127 of 2007 dated 1.5.2007 which the said petitions stood posted to 24.9.2007. While so, in O.P.583 of 2004 filed by the 1st petitioner, which was renumbed on transfer as O.P.4 of 2007 on the file of the Court of Peddapuram, the defacto complainant was set exparte on 20.4.2007. At this stage of the proceedings, the defacto complainant has preferred the present complaint, which was registered as Cr.No:118 of 2007 on 13.6.2007 against the 1st petitioner including petitioners-2 and 3. From the above, it can be seen that the main dispute is between the defacto complainant and the 1st petitioner from the date of the marriage itself, for which respective O.Ps are kept pending against each other. Therefore filing the present criminal case against the 1st petitioner husband cannot be disturbed at this stage, in view of the pendency of the O.Ps between them. But, there are no bonafides on the part of the defacto complainant in including petitioners-2 and 3 in her complaint instead of availing the remedies that are available under law to proceed against them if it were true that the 1st petitioner contacted second marriage during the subsistence of the marriage with the defacto complainant. In this view of the matter, I feel that the proceedings against petitioners-2 and 3 alone are liable to be quashed. Hence, this Criminal petition is allowed quashing the proceedings in so far as petitioners-2 and 3 are concerned. However, the criminal petition is dismissed in so far as the 1st petitioner is concerned. The III Additional Judicial first Class Magistrate, Kakinada, East Godavari District is directed to proceed against the 1st petitioner alone. Accordingly, this Criminal Petition is allowed in part to the extent indicated above. __________________________ JUSTICE RAJA ELANGO Dated 17-06-2010. Dvs HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE RAJA ELANGO CRIMINAL PETITION No: 4051 OF 2008 Dated 17-06-2010