Kerala High Court Quashes Criminal Proceedings Against Congress Leaders

The Kerala High Court has quashed the criminal proceedings against three Congress leaders, including two sitting MLAs, accused of restraining and outraging the modesty of LDF MLAs during a 2015 state assembly ruckus. The court deemed the charges of wrongful restraint and outraging modesty under IPC sections 341 and 354 as baseless.

The Kerala High Court on Friday quashed the criminal proceedings against three Congress leaders, including two sitting MLAs, who were accused of wrongfully restraining and outraging the modesty of two then LDF MLAs amidst the ruckus in the state assembly in 2015.

The ruckus occurred in the state assembly on March 13, 2015, as the LDF MLAs tried to obstruct the then state Finance Minister K M Mani from presenting the budget and demanded his resignation over corruption allegations against him.

Then Congress MLAs K Sivadhasan Nair, Dominic Presentation, and M A Vaheed were accused by then LDF MLAs K K Lathika and Jameela Prakasham of wrongfully restraining them and outraging their modesty while they were protesting against Mani presenting the budget.

Justice P V Kunhikrishnan quashed the cases against the three Congress leaders on the ground that the complaints and the statements recorded at the pre-cognizance stage ''would not attract the offences under sections 341 (wrongful restraint) or 354 (outraging modesty of women) of the IPC''.

While quashing the cases, the court also said that the magisterial court order taking cognizance of the offences under the two sections was ''illegal''.

Citing reasons for its decision, the HC emphasized that while protesting in a democratic manner in the assembly is permissible, obstructing the Finance Minister from presenting the budget was against his constitutional duty. The HC noted that the LDF leaders had no right to block the minister and thus, the wrongful restraint offence was not applicable.

The High Court stressed that although there was a prima facie allegation of assault, the intent of the Congress leaders was to ensure the presentation of the budget, not to outrage modesty, thus Section 354 IPC was not made out. Hence, the court found it justified to quash the proceedings.

(With inputs from agencies.)