SC Quashes FIR Against Telugu Actor Mohan Babu Over Student Fee Protest
The Supreme Court has annulled the FIR filed against Telugu actor Mohan Babu and his son Vishnu Vardhan Babu in connection with a 2019 protest in Andhra Pradesh concerning student fee reimbursements.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court quashed the FIR registered against actor Mohan Babu and his son Vishnu Vardhan Babu. The matter pertained to a protest rally held in 2019 in Andhra Pradesh, demanding clearance of pending fee reimbursement amounts for students.
A bench comprising Justices BV Nagarathna and KV Viswanathan accepted the plea filed by Mohan Babu and his son, overturning the Andhra Pradesh High Court’s order which had earlier declined to dismiss the criminal charges against them.
The protest took place on March 22, 2019, led by Mohan Babu, his sons, and other senior representatives of Sri Vidyalaya Institution. They had raised slogans against the then-state government, urging the release of the delayed student fee reimbursement funds.
Following the demonstration, a complaint was lodged by the then Model Code of Conduct Officer, as elections were imminent in the State. The officer alleged that the rally and dharna caused a traffic obstruction that lasted over four hours. Based on this, the police registered an FIR under Sections 290 (public nuisance), 341 (wrongful restraint), 171-F (undue influence at elections) read with Section 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code, and Section 34 of the Police Act, 1861.
Earlier, the High Court had rejected the request to cancel the FIR, stating that the allegations against the appellants warranted a proper trial and that the case did not satisfy the rare conditions laid out by the Supreme Court in the landmark State of Haryana v. Bhajan Lal (1992) judgment, which permits quashing of FIRs using inherent powers.
