Frivolous, Clogs Criminal Justice System: Karnataka HC Stays Proceedings Against Man Accused Of Wrongfully Holding Missing Cat In His House

A single-judge bench of Justice M Nagaprasanna granted interim relief to petitioner Taha Husain. It said, “There shall be an interim order of stay of the further proceedings in C.C.No.13477/2022, till the disposal of the petition.”

The petitioner had approached the court seeking to quash the proceedings initiated against him under Sections 504, 506 and 509 of the IPC on the complaint made by one Nikitha Anjana Iyer.

It was said that a cat by name Daisy, owned by Iyer went missing as it jumped from wall to wall of the houses adjacent to it. Later it was found that the cat was found in the house of the petitioner as could be seen from the CCTV footage. Thus the complaint for the aforesaid offences were alleged against this petitioner for holding the cat.

The counsel for the petitioner submitted that cats will get in and go out from the windows and permitting further proceedings on such a frivolous complaint for the alleged offences would clog the criminal justice system.

During the hearing, the bench orally remarked that the police instead of investigating serious/real crimes were probing such offences after it was informed that the police had filed chargesheet against the accused after investigation.

The court while passing the interim order also issued notice to the state government and the complainant and posted the matter hearing in the usual course.

Case Title: Taha Husain AND State of Karnataka & ANR

Case No: CRL.P 12290/2023