Madras high court quashes trial court proceedings against former panchayat president in Theni district

MADURAI: The Madras high court has quashed trial court proceedings against a former panchayat president, stating that police filing a final report in the case by ignoring the communication of the complainant to drop further action, is not justified.
The petitioner, P T Muthuvel, was the panchayat president of a village in Theni district in 2012 and a sum of Rs 2.59 lakh was found to be short while auditing the panchayat accounts.
Based on a complaint filed by the block development officer (BDO), a case was registered against the petitioner by the Theni district crime branch police. Though the petitioner submitted that he had not committed misappropriation, he had later remitted the amount which was found to be short.
Following the remittance, the district collector and the BDO dropped further action against the petitioner and a communication was sent to the police in this regard. Despite the communication, the police filed a final report before the Theni judicial magistrate court in 2015. Hence, the petitioner moved the high court in 2016 seeking to quash the trial court proceedings.
Hearing the plea, Justice G R Swaminathan took cognizance of the fact that the collector had decided to close the proceedings against the petitioner. Stating that the continuance of the proceedings would amount to abuse of the legal process, the judge quashed the trial court proceedings against the petitioner.