The Supreme Court on Wednesday quashed a criminal case registered against Telugu actor-producer Mohan Babu and his son Vishnu Manchu in connection with a 2019 student protest in Tirupati over fee reimbursement..A Bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and KV Viswanathan found that the offences invoked against the accused were not made out in the case.“A reading of the FIR and the charge-sheet neither discloses any act committed or illegal commission that caused common injury, danger, annoyance to the public or any section of the public or interference with their public rights, nor do they disclose any voluntary obstruction to a person that prevents them from proceeding in any direction that they have a right to proceed in," the Court said..Babu is the Chairman of Sri Vidyaniketan Educational Institutions. Ahead of the Lok Sabha and Assembly Elections in Andhra Pradesh in 2019, he and his son along with others had held a rally along the Tirupati-Madanapalli road and raised slogans against the State government for not granting student fee reimbursements. They were booked on a complaint made by the In-charge of the Model Code of Conduct Team-IV, Chandragiri Assembly Constituency. .Andhra Pradesh High Court in January this year declined to quash the proceedings in the case, observing that there were specific allegations against the accused. However, the top court found that ingredients of the offences invoked in the case were entirely absent. It noted that there was no material to suggest that there was any undue influence at elections, impersonation at elections or any act committed with the intention to interfere with the free exercise of electoral rights."Further they do not suggest that any act was committed on a road or in an open place within the limits of a town that caused inconvenience, annoyance or posed a risk of danger or inquiry or damage to the public, and do not disclose any of the eight specified actions under Section 34 of the Police Act, 1861," it added.On the contrary, the Court found that the accused were exercising their right to protest.“The appellants were exercising their right to freedom of speech and expression and to assemble peacefully. Therefore, no purpose will be served by continuing the prosecution," it said..Thus, the Court allowed the appeals against the Andhra Pradesh High Court decision and quashed the FIR against the duo..Senior Advocate Raghavendra S Srivatsa with advocates Pai Amit, Abhiyudaya Vats, Tathagata Dutta and Pankhuri Bhardwaj appeared for petitioner Manchu Mohan Babu.Advocates Prerna Singh, Dhruv Yadav and Guntur Pramod Kumar appeared for the State..[Read Judgment]
