'Every Possible Effort Made By Officials To Hamper Investigations': P&H High Court Raps PUDA, GMADA For Delay In Sanctioning Probes, Seeks Response

The Punjab & Haryana High Court has rapped state authorities, Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority (PUDA) and Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMAD) for delaying the investigation in criminal cases for which it was authorised to grant sanctions.

Justice N.S. Shekhawat observed, "From the affidavit submitted by the SSP Fatehgarh Sahib, it is apparent that every possible effort has been made by the officials of PUDA/GMADA to hamper the process of investigation, apparently under the influence of the accused in the said cases. It has also come to the notice of this Court that in number of cases, the process of investigation has been unreasonably delayed as the report/sanction was awaited from PUDA/GMADA, despite various reminders."

Consequently, the Court directed PUDA and GMADA to submit the following information by way of their personal affidavits, by the next date:

(i) Details of the FIR(s) including number, date, Sections, Police Station, in which the report/sanction was sought by the concerned police authority;

(ii) Date of receipt of request from the concerned Police Station(s)/SSP(s)/any other police official(s);

(iii) Name of the officer, who had received such information;

(iv) Name of the officer, who dealt with the each file at different stages;

(v) Date of supply of the report/sanction in each of such FIR

(vi) Reasons for delay in supplying the record/information to the police; and

vii) Action, if any, taken against erring official(s), who delayed the supply of report/sanction in each case.

The development came after a petition was filed under Section 482 to transfer the investigation of a case filed under Sections 279, 304-A IPC lodged in 2017, to an independent agency or a senior police officer of the rank of Superintendent of Police alleging that some police officials are trying to falsely implicate him and demanding a bribe of Rs 5 lakhs.

During the hearing, the Court noted that the investigation has been pending for over 6 years and the Police did not file the challan, hence it directed the SSP, of Punjab's Fatehgarh sahib to file his personal affidavit explaining the reasons for the delay in conducting the investigation in the present case.

The Court also asked the SSP to file a list of FIRs (Police Station-wise) in his District, where the investigation has been pending for the last 3 years.

In pursuance of the direction, the SSP submitted that the investigation has been pending for more than 3 years because the record is awaited from PUDA/GMADA despite various reminders.

Justice Shekhawat then observed that "It is shocking to note that the investigation in these cases have been delayed for the last about 11 years as the record was not supplied by the GMADA/PUDA. Due to the delay on the part of the PUDA/GMADA, the prosecution of the accused in these cases could not commence and apparently PUDA/GMADA did not supply the record under the influence of the accused."

The Court impleaded PUDA and GMADA as respondents and directed the SSP to file the latest status report.

Perusing the report filed by SSP in the present hearing, the Court noted, "...the investigation in five criminal cases was delayed for about 11 years, as the sanction was awaited from PUDA/GMADA."

In light of the above the Court directed the PUDA and GMADA to file the details of the cases for which sanction was sought from them by the police officials.

The matter is listed for April 19, for further consideration.

Piyush Bansal Vs State of Punjab and others

Jasjit Singh, DAG, Punjab.

Deepali Puri, Advocate for respondents PUDA, GMADA

Click here to read/download the order