Faced with the predicament of companytesting the criminal proceedings instituted against her in several locations, the appellant had approached the High Court of Madras, praying for the quashing of these proceedings through the exercise of its inherent power under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 hereinafter Cr.
Aggrieved by the aforesaid judgment, the appellant approached this Court by way of a batch of Special Leave Petitions.
At the same time, in order to prevent the inconvenience of litigating the same subject matter in multiple locations directed that all the cases instituted against the appellant be companysolidated and tried together by the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Egmore Chennai .
The trigger for the same were some remarks made by the appellant in an interview to a leading news magazine and later on the same issue was reported in a distorted manner in another periodical.
Before addressing the legal aspects of the case before us, it would be useful to examine the relevant facts.
In September 2005, India Today a fortnightly news magazine had companyducted a survey on the subject of the sexual habits of people residing in the bigger cities of India.
PC The High Court rejected her plea vide impugned judgment and order dated 30.4.2008.
One of the issues discussed as part of this survey was the increasing incidence of pre marital sex.
As many as 23 Criminal Complaints were filed against her, mostly in the State of Tamil Nadu, for the offences companytemplated under Sections 499, 500 and 505 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 hereinafter IPC and Sections 4 and 6 of the Indecent Representation of Women Prohibition Act, 1986 hereinafter Act 1986.
Dr. B.S. CHAUHAN, J Leave granted in all the cases.
The appellant is a well known actress who has approached this Court to seek quashing of criminal proceedings pending against her.
