Kerala High Court: The Single Judge Bench comprising of P. Ubaid J., addressed a petition seeking quashing of the prosecution under Section 482 CrPC due to no material on record and otherwise leading to an abuse of legal process.
The present matter deals with the petitioner being found consuming liquor at the side of the public road and when approached by the Sub-Inspector, scolded him in filthy language. The petitioner submits that there is no material for a prosecution against him under Section 15(c) of the Kerala Akbari Act or under Section 294(b) IPC as it has been wrongly registered against him for the mentioned Sections. The Alco-meter test had given some strange results for which the police admitted that it occurred due to some mechanical defect.
Further, placing reliance on the case Rajeev P v State of Kerala, 2009 KHC 979, it was established by the bench that on evidence of smell of alcohol alone, an accused cannot be found guilty under Section 15(c) of the Kerala Akbari Act.
While giving due consideration to the facts and circumstances of the case, the Court observed that there was no scientific material to show that alcohol was detected in the blood of the accused, in fact, the only material available was that of the ‘smell’ which the doctor detected and issued the certificate in regard to that. Therefore, the present prosecution stands quashed as it only leads to sheer waste of time and an abuse of legal process. [Mukesh v. State of Kerala, 2018 SCC OnLine Ker 2737, order dated 11-07-2018]
