Father C.R.Prabhu vs State Of Jharkhand & Anr on 9 April, 2013

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Jharkhand High Court

Father C.R.Prabhu vs State Of Jharkhand & Anr on 9 April, 2013

This application has been filed for quashing of the entire criminal proceeding of Complaint Case No. 1514 of 2009, including the order dated 11.6.2010 passed by the then Judicial Magistrate, Ranchi, whereby and whereunder cognizance of the offences punishable under Sections 153(A), 295(A), 505 and 506 of Indian Penal Code has been taken against the petitioner.

Before adverting to the submissions advanced on behalf of the parties, the case of the complainant needs to be taken notice of.

It is the case of the complainant-an Association of Members of Scheduled Tribes that the members of it are the followers of "Sarna Religion", who are having their own customs. They used to perform Puja of nature including trees and that religious rituals are being performed through 'Pahan'.

Further case is that recently a meeting of the followers of Christian Community was held at Orissa under the banner of All Churches Committee under whose resolution, 'Nemha Bible' published earlier was circulated almost in all the areas of Jharkhand including Ranchi. Said 'Nemha Bible' had been published in Kurukh language, which is one of the indigenous tribal language, whereby the accused persons, by publishing and by circulating 'Nemha Bible', have been attempting to destroy Sarna Religion, which would appear from one passage which reads in verbatim as follows:-

"You must completely destroy all the places where the nations you dispossess have served their Gods, on high mountains, on hills, under any spreading tree; you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred stones, burn their sacred poles, back to bits the statues of their Gods and obliterate their name from that place."

Thus it has been alleged that its distribution among the sections of people has caused disharmony, feeling of enmity/hatred or ill will among the followers of religions as aforesaid.

On such allegation, a compliant bearing Complaint Case No. 1514 of 2009 was lodged under Sections 153(A), 295(A), 505 and 506 of Indian Penal Code in which cognizance of the offences as aforesaid was taken against the petitioner vide order dated 11.6.2010 which is under challenge.

Mr. Sumeet Gadodia, learned counsel appearing for the petitioner, submits that 'Nemha Bible' is nothing but a translated version in Kurukh language (a tribal language) of the Holy Bible and that whatever preaches were made by the religious heads before the era of the Christ, those speeches were compiled and the compilation is the old testament. In the old testament, one of the preaches is there which ordains for the destruction of the places of the worship of other religions. Perhaps, those preaches were in the context that whenever any kingdom is won by a king, follower of Christian religion he should destroy the places of worship including the trees under which religious functions were being held. Those preaches, which were there in the old testament, have now been incorporated in the 'Nemha Bible', published in Kurukh language, and as such, it has never been published for causing disharmony in between the members of the two communities and that in the old testament, reference of destruction of green trees and also destruction of altars has come and that word 'green trees' have been translated in Kurukh language as 'Sarna Mann' and thereby using the word 'Sarna Mann' never causes any disharmony to the members of two religious communities.

Thus, it was submitted that the court should not have taken cognizance of the offences as in the aforesaid backgrounds, no offence is made out under Sections 153(A) and 295(A) of Indian Penal Code. That apart, the court has also committed illegality in taking cognizance of the offences of the aforesaid offences without there being any sanction either by the State Government or by the Central Government in terms of the provision as contained in Section 196 Cr.P.C.

It was further submitted that so far the offence under Section 505 of Indian Penal Code is concerned, it is also not made out, as 'Nemha Bible' is a translated version of the Holy Bible and thereby it cannot be said that either its publication or distribution has caused fear, alarm among the members of any of the communities to commit offences against the State or against the public tranquility and hence no offence is made out under Section 505 of Indian Penal Code against the petitioner.

Similar is the case with the offence under Section 506 of Indian Penal Code, as even if the allegation made that 'Nemha Bible' was distributed among the people is accepted to be true, he cannot be said to have committed offence of criminal intimidation in terms of the provision, as is there in Section 503 of Indian Penal Code, as the petitioner has never been alleged to have threatened to the followers of Sarna religion with injury, reputation or property and, therefore the court has also committed illegality in taking cognizance of the offence under Section 506 of Indian Penal Code.

As against that, Mr. P.P.N. Roy, learned senior counsel appearing for the opposite party no. 2, submits that even if cognizance has been taken without there being any sanction either by the State Government or by the Central Government, the court cannot be said to have committed any illegality, as the sanction can be placed before the court at any time during trial and that so far as other offences are concerned, the case is certainly made out by the act of the petitioner, who has been alleged to have distributed the copies of 'Nemha Bible' among the members of one of the communities and thereby it will bring ill-will between the two sections of the communities which would disturb the public tranquility.

Having heard learned counsel appearing for the parties, it does appear that the cognizance of the offences under Sections 153(A) and 295(A) of Indian Penal Code has been taken by the court on the allegation made in the complaint that one of the passages has been there in the 'Nemha Bible', a translated version of Holy Bible, which says about the destruction of the religious place including green trees, which according to the complainant, happen to be a religious place of the persons having faith in Sarna religion. Thereby, it has been alleged that it will bring disharmony among the followers of two sections of religion and thus it has been alleged that the petitioner by his act has committed offences under Sections 153(A) and 295(A) of Indian Penal Code. On such accusation, cognizance of the offences punishable under Sections 153(A) and 295(A) of Indian Penal Code has been taken against the petitioner without there being any sanction either by the State Government or by the Central Government. In absence of any sanction in terms of Section 196 Cr.P.C. it certainly appears to be bad. The said provision as contained in Section 196 Cr.P.C. reads as follows:-

"196. Prosecution for offences against the State and for criminal conspiracy to commit such offence.--(1) No Court shall take cognizance of--

(a) any offence punishable under Chapter VI or under section 153-A, section 295-A or sub-section (1) of section 505 of the Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860), or

(b) a criminal conspiracy to commit such offence, or

(c) any such abetment, as is described in section 108-A of the Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860), except with the previous sanction of the Central Government or of the State Government.

(1-A) No Court shall take cognizance of--

(a) any offence punishable under section 153-B or sub-

section (2) or sub-section (3) of section 505 of the Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860), or

(b) a criminal conspiracy to commit such offence, except with the previous sanction of the Central Government or of the State Government or of the District Magistrate. (2) No Court shall take cognizance of the offence of any criminal conspiracy punishable under section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860), other than a criminal conspiracy to commit an offence punishable with death, imprisonment for life or rigorous imprisonment for a term of two years or upwards, unless the State Government or the District Magistrate has consented in writing to the initiation of the proceedings:

Provided that where the criminal conspiracy is one to which the provisions of section 195 apply, no such consent shall be necessary.

(3) The Central Government or the State Government may, before according sanction under sub-section (1) or sub-

section (1-A) and the District Magistrate may, before according sanction under sub-section (1-A) and the State Government or the District Magistrate may, before giving consent under sub-section (2), order a preliminary investigation by a police officer not being below the rank of Inspector, in which case such police officer shall have the powers referred to in sub-section (3) of section 155."

On perusal of the said provision, it is crystal clear that sanction either by the State Government or by the Central Government is a condition precedent for taking cognizance of the offence under Sections 153(A) and 295(A) of Indian Penal Code.

So far as the submission made on behalf of the opposite party no. 2 that sanction can be obtained at any point of time during trial is concerned, it be stated that such view has been expressed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the facts and circumstances of the case when it is not clear as to whether any offence committed by the public servant was in discharge of public duty or not. In such situation, it could be determined during the trial when the evidences would be led and if the evidences led do suggest that the offence committed by the public was in connection with discharge of public duty then the prosecution needs to place sanction for prosecuting the person but that situation does arise in the instant case and thereby the order, under which cognizance of the offence has been taken for the offences under Sections 153(A) and 295(A) of Indian Penal Code, appears to be bad.

Accordingly, that part of the order dated 11.6.2010, under which cognizance of the offences under Sections 153(A) and 295(A) of Indian Penal Code has been taken against the petitioner, is not sustainable in law.

So far offence under Section 505 of Indian Penal Code is concerned, taking into account the allegation made against the petitioner prima facie case seems to have been made out under Section 505 of Indian Penal Code. I am not going into the detail over this matter at this stage, as any finding given at this stage would be prejudiced to the case of the parties.

So far the offence under Section 506 of Indian Penal Code is concerned, that also does not seem to have been made out, as it is a simple case of the prosecution that 'Nemha Bible', which is a translated version of the Holy Bible, has been distributed among the one section of the society, the petitioner has never been alleged to have threatened any person with any injury to his person, reputation or property with intent to cause alarm to that person or to cause that person to do any act which he is not legally bound to do and thereby no offence is made out under Section 506 of Indian Penal Code.

Accordingly, that part of the order dated 11.6.2010, under which cognizance of the offences punishable under Sections 153(A), 295(A) and 506 of Indian Penal Code has been taken against the petitioner, is hereby quashed.

In the result, this application stands partly allowed.

(R.R. Prasad, J.) AKT

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Jharkhand High Court