1977 (3) TMI 150 - SUPREME COURT

Whether there was sufficient material on the record on which to frame charges against the respondents?

Whether the High Court was justified in holding that the proceedings against the respondents ought to be quashed in order to prevent abuse of the process of the court and in order to secure the ends of justice?

Held that:- Appeal dismissed. As for the purpose of determining whether there is sufficient ground for proceeding against an accused the court possesses a comparatively wider discretion in the exercise of which it can determine the question whether the material on the record, if unrebutted, is such on the: basis of which a conviction can-be said reasonably to be possible. We are therefore in agreement with the view of the High Court that the material on which the prosecution proposes.to rely against the respondents is wholly inadequate to. sustain the charge that they are in any manner connected with the assault on the complainant. We would, however, like to observe that nothing in our judgment or in the judgment of the High Court should be taken as detracting from the case of the prosecution, to which we have not applied our mind, as against accused Nos. 1 to 9. The case against those accused must take its due and lawful course.