Banothu Upendar v. The State of Telangana
Court: High Court for State of Telangana
Bench: J SREENIVAS RAO
Judgment date:
Case summary
High Court for State of Telangana judgment dated 2026-03-10. Banothu Upendar v. The State of Telangana. Read the judgment and case details on LawSphereX.
Judgment text
[ 3303 I IN THE HIGH COURT FOR THE STATE OF TELANGANA AT HYDERABAD TUESDAY, THE TENTH DAY OF MARCH TWO THOUSAND AND TWENTY SIX PRESENT THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE J SREENIVAS RAO CRIMINAL PETITION NO: 3402 OF 2026 Between: 1. Banothu Upendar, S/o Balu, Aged about 25 years, Occ: Business, R/o Pulagambanda Thanda Village, Neredcherla ltlandal, Suryapet District. 2. Pothuganti Srinivas @ Pallela Srinu, S/o Venkateswarlu, Aged about 50 years, Occ: Business, R/o Mulkalakaluva Village, Miryalagudem Mandal, Suryapet District. ... Petitioner/A-1 & A-2 AND 1. The State of Telangana, Rep. by its Public Prosecutor, High Court for the State of Telangana, Hyderabad. ... Respondent 2. Sri. Ch. Rajashekar, Deputy Tahsidar (Civil Supplies), Huzurnagar ... Res po ndents/Com plai na nt Petition under Section 528 of BNSS praying that in the circumstances stated in the Memorandum of Grounds of Criminal Petition, the High Court may be pleased to call for the records in CC No.
629 of 2024 on the file of Judicial First Class Magistrate at Huzurnagar and quash the same. l. A. NO: 2OF 2026 Petition under Section 528 of BNSS praying that in the circumstances stated in the Memorandum of Grounds of Criminal Petition, the High Court may be pleased to stay of all proceedings against the petitioners in CC No. 629 of 2024 on the file of Judicial First Class Magistrate at Huzurnagar, pending disposal of the main criminal petition. . -j- lri:. This Petition coming on for hearing, upon perusing the Memorandum of Grounds of Criminal Petition and upon hearing the arguments of Sri CH Ravinder, Advocate for the Petitioners and Sri Jithender Rao Veeramalla, Additional Public Prosecutor on behalf of the Rt:spondent No. 1 and none appeared for the Respondent No. 2. The Court made the following: ORDER AT HYDERABAD THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE J. SREBNIVAS RAO CRIMINAL PETITION No. 3402 of 2026 Date: 10. 03. 2026 Between: Banothu Upendar and another ...
Petitioners AND The State of Telangana, Rep. by its Public Prosecutor, High Court for the State of Telangana, Hyderabad and another . Respondents ORDER This Criminal Petition has been filed by the petitioners/accused Nos. l and 2 seeking to quash the proceedings in C. C. No. 629 of 2024, on the file of the Judicial Magistrate at Huzurnagar 2. Heard Mr. CH. Ravinder, leamed counsel for the petitioners and Mr. Jithender Rao Veeramalla, learned Additional Public Prosecutor for respondent No. 1. 3. The specific allegation against the petitioners/accused Nos. l and 2 is that they have procured PDS rice from the beneficiaries at cheaper rate to sell the same for profit and on 07. 03. 2024, the petitiorrers were found in possession of 30 bags pDS of rice totalling 15 quintals. 4. I.
earned counsel for the petitioners would submit that withour- there being any cornplaint from any beneficiary, alleging that the rice was procured deceptively or with a criminal intent and charging the petitioners for prosecution is untenable and improper. The all,:gations, even taken at their face value cannot be sustained against the petitioners. Further, this court, in crl. p. No. 5709 of 2019, vrhile considering the same situation, categorically observed that the offences alleged against the petitioners therein could not be continued and accordingly quashed the proceedings. The petitioners are also entitled to the same relief and hence prayed to quash ttre proceedings against the petitioners. 5. The learned Additional public prosecutor submits that as per prosecution, the offences said to have been committed by the petitionr:rs is cheating and violation of Section 7 of the Essential commodities Act, 1955 (for short 'EC Act') and requested to pass appropnate orders. d-. , 6.
Section 7 of the EC Act contemplate that any person contravenes with the production, supply, distribution and trade of essential commodities, is punishable. As per the prosecution, the petitioners have procured PDS rice from the beneficiaries after supply from the dealer. \ t \ 7. A Coordinate Bench of this Court in Crl. P. No. 7227 of 2025 has considered the identical facts and observed that: "There is no averment indicating that the petitioner in any way deceptively induced the beneficiaries to part with the supplied PDS rice or the beneficiary entrusted the PDS rice purchased by them with the petitioner and they dishonestly misappropriated or converted to their own use or used it in violation of a lawful direction or contract. In the absence ctf essentialfactors, on theface of prosecution, this Courtfinds it to be afit case to exercise the jurisdiction under Section 528 tf BNSS, 2023. Thus, continuance of proceedings against the petitbner is abuse of process of law". 8.
The facts and circumstances of the present case also similar to those in the above case and hence, this Court finds it to be a fit case to exercise jurisdiction under Section 528 of BNSS by applying the same analogy and to quash the proceedings against the petitioners herein. 9. Accordingly, the Criminal Petition is allowed and the proceedings in C. C. No. 629 of 2024, on the file of the Judicial f Magistrate at Huzurnagar, against the petitioners/accused Nos. l and2, zrre hereby quashed. f'ending miscellaneous applications, if any, shall stand closed. SD/. A. SREENIVASA REDDY TANT REGISTRAR //TRUE COPY/ OFFICER To, 1. The Judicial First Class Magistrate at Huzurnagar. 2. The Station House Officer, Nereducherla Police Station, Suryapet District. 3. Two CCs to the Public Prosecutor, High Court of Telangana at Hyderabad lourl 4. One CC to Sri CH Ravinder, Advocate [OPUC] 5. Two CD Copies GNK/PSiL +- / f HIGH COURT DATED: 'l0/0312026 -t { rtE sT4 e 3 1t flAR 2o26 ORDER * * ...
',{ :i' CRLP. No. 3402 of 2026 ALLOWING THE CRIMINAL PETITION 2G.
Source: Supreme Court eSCR. Dataset: Dattam Labs, CC BY 4.0. Text extracted automatically; compare with the source PDF for layout and accuracy.