The Kerala High Court quashed the final report and proceedings in a case registered against Himaval Bhadrananda for his Facebook posts, which allegedly hurt the religious sentiments of the Muslim community. The High Court noted that cognizance in the matter was taken much after the period of limitation.

The High Court was considering a Petition filed by the accused booked in a case registered under Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code for remarks against the Muslim community and Prophet Muhammad.

The Single Bench of Justice V.G. Arun held, “The relevant dates for deciding as to whether the further prosecution is barred under Section 468 of Cr.P.C are the date of registration of the crime and the date on which the final report was filed. Though final report was initially filed on 28.02.2020, requisite documents including prosecution sanction were not produced along with it. It is settled law that final report filed hastily without completing the investigation or appending the relevant documents, cannot be treated as final report filed in accordance with Section 173 of the Code. Here, after curing defects the final report was filed only on 03.02.2023."

Advocate S Jayant represented the Petitioner, while Public Prosecutor M.C.Ashi represented the State.

Factual Background

It was alleged that, with the intention of promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, the Petitioner posted a derogatory comment on his Facebook page. Even though a case was registered in the year 2016, final report was filed only 2023. The Peititon before the High Court was filed with a plea to quash the proceedings on the ground that cognizance was taken after the period of limitation.

Arguments

It was the case of the Petitioner that the offence under Section 153A of IPC being punishable with imprisonment up to three years only, the final report ought to have been filed within three years.

On the contrary, the Public Prosecutor submitted that the final report was filed in 2020, but was returned after noting defects. The delay in representing the final report occurred since the case diary was misplaced and some time was taken to trace it out.

Reasoning

The Bench, at the outset, noted, “Even if 28.02.2020 is taken as the date of filing of final report, that is also beyond the three year period prescribed in Section 468 of Cr.P.C. Further, no application for condonation of delay, as contemplated under Section 473 of Cr.P.C, was filed along with the final report".

The Court further added, "It is also reported that cognizance was taken only on 07.02.2023, much after the period of limitation. In such circumstances, continuance of the proceedings will be an abuse of process of court.On a perusal of the facts of the case, the Bench found that cognizance was taken only on February 7, 2023, which was much after the period of limitation".

Thus, allowing the Criminal Miscellaneous Case, the Bench quashed the final report and all further proceedings on the files of the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Court as against the Petitioner.

Cause Title: Himaval Maheshwara Bhadrananda v. State Of Kerala & Ors. (Neutral Citation: 2025:KER:20451)

Appearance:

Petitioner: Advocates Abhiremya Raj R B, S. Jayant, Govind V.P., Shahanaz B., Gayathri R.

Respondent: Public Prosecutor M.C. ASHI

Click here to read/download Order


Kerala High CourtJustice VG Arun

Tulip Kanth

Assistant Editor

Tulip Kanth is an Assistant Editor at Verdictum having over 5 years of experience in the field of legal journalism and editing. She extensively covers judgments of the Supreme Court, High Courts as well as Tribunals. She has previously worked with a legal publishing website where she oversaw the work of other editors and has also created updates on notifications of different Government Ministries. She holds an English Honours Degree from SGTB Khalsa College, Delhi University and has completed her LLB course with specialisation in Corporate Law from Amity University.