S. 482 CrPC Plea Maintainable To Quash Proceedings Which Are Ex Facie Bad For Want Of Sanction: Allahabad High Court

The Allahabad High Court today observed that an application under Section 482 CrPC is maintainable to quash the proceedings, which are ex facie bad for want of sanction as required under Section 197 of Crpc (Prosecution of Judges and public servants).

With this, the Bench of Justice Chandra Kumar Rai set aside a summoning order passed by the Judicial Magistrate Farrukhabad against a Lekhpal (applicant number 1) and a Kanoongo (applicant number 2) in the Consolidation department (both public servants) without obtaining necessary sanction as provided under Section 197 of CrPC.

The Case in brief

Essentially, during a consolidation proceeding, a joint plot was allotted to opposite party No.2 (one Ram Singh) and on his application filed in August 2006, the Settlement Officer of Consolidation directed that measurements of the land be taken in accordance with the law.

In pursuance of the order, both the applicants, being public servants (Lekhpal and Kanoongo) conducted measurement of disputed plots with the help of local police and submitted their report on November 15, 2006.

However, Opposite party No.2 filed a complaint on November 27, 2006, before the Judicial Magistrate, Farrukhabad with the allegation that both the applicants illegally made measurements of the plot, in which crops were standing and there was an order dated November 15, 2006, to stop the measurement.

The Judicial Magistrate summoned the applicant under Section 427 IPC, without considering the fact that applicants are public servants and they were discharging their official duties.

Contention put forth

Before the High Court, the counsel for the applicants argued that the applicants were discharging their duties to measure the plots, as such the private complaint against the applicants are not maintainable unless necessary sanction as provided under Section 197 of Code of Criminal Procedure is obtained.

It was further argued that applicants were not aware of the further order passed by the Settlement Officer Consolidation to stop the measurement.

Court's observations

At the outset, the Court referred to Section 197 CrPC to infer that the object of sanction for prosecution is to protect a public servant discharging official duties and functions from harassment by the initiation of a frivolous criminal proceeding.

Explaining the scope of this section further, the Court said that the protection given under Section 197 of the Criminal Procedure Code has its limitation and it is available only when alleged act done by the public servant is reasonably connected with the discharge of his official duty.

"If in doing official duty public officer if committed any mistake or has been summoned in excess of duty even then the sanction of the Government as provided under Section 197 of the Criminal Procedure Code is mandatory," the Court added.

Further, relying upon the Judgment of the Supreme Court in the case of D. Devaraja vs. Owais Sabeer Hussain reported in [2020 (113) ACC and 904], the High court observed thus:

"...it is well settled that an application under Section 482 Cr.P.C. is maintainable to quash the proceedings, which are ex facie bad for want of sanction. If, on the face of complaint, the act alleged appears to have a reasonable relationship with official duty power under Section 482 Cr.P.C. would have to be exercised to quash the proceedings to prevent abuse of process of Court."

With this, the application under Section 482 Cr.P.C. was allowed and the summoning order passed by the Judicial Magistrate  Farrukhabad was set aside and the complaint was also quashed for want of sanction in the exercise of HC's power under Section 482 Cr.P.C.

Case title - Mahendra Pal Singh Lekhpal And Another v. State of U.P. and Another
Case Citaiton: 2022 LiveLaw (AB) 9

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