The Kerala High Court on Friday quashed the case filed against three former Congress MLAs for allegedly assaulting LDF women MLAs during the ruckus witnessed in the assembly in 2015.

A single bench of Justice P V Kunhikrishnan quashed proceedings against former Congress MLAs M A Vaheed, Dominic Presentation, K Sivadasan Nair in the 2015 Kerala Legislative Assembly Ruckus case. The order came in the petition filed by the former Congress MLAs against the case registered against them

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Former LDF legislators K K Lathika and Jameela Prakasham filed complaints against the legislators for obstructing their movement inside the Assembly by using force and touching their bodies. The Magistrate had taken cognizance of the offences under Sections 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint), 354 (assault or criminal force to outrage a woman’s modesty), and 34 (acts done with criminal intent) of the IPC.

Quashing the proceedings against the former Congress MLAs, the court held that the intent of the petitioners was to ensure that Finance Minister K M Mani could present the budget in the Kerala Legislative Assembly, to fulfil a Constitutional duty. The court stated that the petitioners had no intent to wrongfully restrain or outrage the modesty of the complainant women.

“The incident in this case happened in a Legislative Assembly where the complainants tried to obstruct the Minister from presenting the Budget for the financial year. At that time, when the complainants were proceeding to obstruct the Minister, the petitioners obstructed them. In such a situation, it cannot be said that there is an intention to outrage modesty, but the intention is to see that the Finance Minister presents the Budget, which is his Constitutional duty,” the court said.

The case is related to the ruckus that had happened in the Kerala Assembly in March 2015, while the CPI-M members were protesting against the then UDF government over the bar bribery allegations against the then Finance Minister KM Mani, who was trying to present the budget speech. The police then registered a case against the CPI-M MLAs V Sivankutty, E P Jayarajan and K T Jaleel. The Congress leaders were implicated in the case in 2023 following complaint from legislators K K Lathika and Jameela Prakasham.