Orissa High Court:<\/b> In a petition filed under Section 482<\/a> of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973<\/a> (‘CrPC’), challenging the criminal proceedings pending before the Lower Court, the Single-Judge Bench of R.K. Pattanaik, J., set aside the impugned order of the Court below and directed to proceed with the complaint only after receiving sanction under Section 197<\/a> of the CrPC<\/a>, to criminally prosecute the petitioners and not otherwise.<\/p>\n
The Court noted that the petitioners were discharging public duty and had been on the spot for verification and to detect unauthorized use of electricity. The Court said that the Court below before taking cognizance of the offences against the petitioners, ought to have conducted a detailed enquiry and if necessary, insisted for sanction under Section 197<\/a> of the CrPC<\/a>. Further, the Court viewed that the petitioners were not on the spot in personal capacity, and even if any excess was committed by the petitioners during the incident, the Court below should have conducted an enquiry, in spirit of law, under Section 168<\/a> of the Electricity Act, 2003<\/a> (‘Electricity Act’) and Section 202<\/a> of the CrPC<\/a>, in order to ascertain the veracity of the allegations. The Court said that the Court below could not have been oblivious of Section 168<\/a> of the Electricity Act<\/a>, which expressly bars any such prosecution for acts done in good faith.<\/p>\n
The Court said that the officers on duty cannot be subjected to undue harassment at the hands of unscrupulous litigants, and to prevent malicious prosecution, provisions such as Section 168<\/a> of the Electricity Act<\/a> are put in place. Further, the Court said that a public servant also enjoys immunity by virtue of Section 197<\/a> of the CrPC<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Thus, the Court said that considering the facts and circumstances of the case, the Court below failed to insist on sanction under Section 197<\/a> of the CrPC<\/a>. Therefore, the impugned order of cognizance by the Court below was set aside, and the Court below was directed to proceed with the complaint only after receiving sanction to criminally prosecute the petitioners and not otherwise.<\/p>\n
[Nihar Ranjan Das v. State of Odisha, 2023 SCC OnLine Ori 1937<\/a>, decided on 11-04-2023<\/span>]<\/p>\n
\n
Advocates who appeared in this case :<\/p>\n
For the Petitioners: Advocate Prasanta Kumar Tripathy;<\/p>\n
The officers on duty cannot be subjected to undue harassment in the hands of unscrupulous litigants, to prevent malicious prosecution provisions such as Section 168<\/a> of the Electricity Act, 2003<\/a>, are put in place.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67011,"featured_media":284856,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,10],"tags":[18591,57088,3044,57090,57089,37146,2675,2694,52774],"class_list":["post-290479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-casebriefs","category-highcourts","tag-code-of-criminal-procedure","tag-criminal-proceedings-quashed","tag-immunity","tag-nesco","tag-northern-electricity-supply-company-of-orissa-ltd","tag-orissa-high-court","tag-public_servant","tag-Sanction","tag-section-197"],"yoast_head":"\n