PC Act cases: HC issues guidelines to courts

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The High Court of Karnataka has issued three-point guidelines to Sessions Judges and Special Courts dealing with Prevention of Corruption Act cases and directed them not to entertain private complaints which do not comply with them.

The first of the three guidelines is that “The complaint should narrate that the complainant has made his efforts to register a crime before the Karnataka Lokayukta and no action is taken by the police on the complaint. Mere statement in the complaint would not suffice but documentary evidence to demonstrate such fact should be appended to the private complaint.”

Second, “The private complaint should also append prior approval granted by the competent authority to register a private complaint. This would become a prerequisite to the concerned Court to refer the matter for investigation.”

These two guidelines will be applicable only if the alleged offences are punishable under the PC Act or are an amalgam of offences under the PC Act and the Indian Penal Code (IPC). It will not be applicable if the alleged offences are only of the IPC.

The guidelines were issued in the judgement on a petition filed by Dr Ashok V, a district officer in the Office of the Backward Classes Welfare Department. One Syed Malik Pasha, an RTI activist, had filed a private complaint against him and four suppliers to the Department and a Sessions Court in Chikkaballapura had referred the matter for investigation by the then Anti-Corruption Bureau.

Ashok had challenged this in the High Court. Justice M Nagaprasanna had heard the petition and in his judgement on July 4, quashed the proceedings pending against Ashok.

The Court said that the Sessions Judge could not have entertained the complaint as Pasha had approached the court with a private complaint directly without first approaching the Lokayukta police.

Secondly Section 17A of the PC Act which was amended in 2018 which makes prior sanction necessary for private complaints “must be observed with complete strictness bearing in mind public interest and protection available to such officers against whom offences are alleged, failing which many a time it would result in a vexatious prosecution.”

The Court also considered the question of filing the private complaint under Section 200 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

The HC said that this was an attempt to “circumvent the rigor of Section 17A of the PC Act.” It further said that “if this practice is permitted, it would only open gates for frivolous and vexatious litigation by the complainants.” (CrLP 531/2022)