CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court has made it clear that the sanction to prosecute a central government employee for ‘breach of trust’ is not required under Section 197 of CrPC for taking away official documents or tampering with them because taking away documents can never be a part of their official duty.
“No official can put forth a claim that breach of trust is connected with his official duty,” observed the HC while relying on various judgments passed by the Supreme Court.
The HC also clarified that at the time of framing the charges, only the prima facie case is to be seen and a high degree of suspicion is sufficient to frame charges and the court is not to examine the statements, documents in the charge sheet so as to record a judgment of conviction or acquittal.
Justice Jasjit Singh Bedi passed these orders while dismissing a plea filed by Brij Nand and Anwar Ansari, Punjab-based employees of the Indian Railways.
They had sought directions for quashing the order dated December 20, 2019, passed by Fatehgarh Sahib chief judicial magistrate whereby charges under Sections 409/120-B of the IPC were ordered to be framed against them. Their revision petition against the framing of charges was also dismissed by Fatehgarh Sahib additional sessions judge on November 29, 2021.
The petitioners were booked on December 8, 2018, under Sections 409 IPC (criminal breach of trust) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) at GRP police station at Sirhind in Fatehgarh Sahib district. The FIR was registered against them on the complaint of another railway employee, Ram Singh Meena for taking away the official record related to his service. As per allegations, it was done by the accused to teach the complainant, who had made a complaint of corruption against the accused, a lesson.
In their plea against the framing of charges, the petitioners argued that in the absence of prosecution sanction, the trial court could not have framed charges against the petitioners. They also said that the Indian Railways, the employer of the two petitioners and the complainant, had not lodged any complaint about taking away/tampering of the documents, so the FIR and the subsequent proceedings ought to be quashed.
After hearing the plea, the HC observed that it is not part of an official duty to commit an offence under Section 409 of IPC (breach of trust), for which the petitioners have been charge-sheeted. “Admittedly, the offence has been committed during the course of the service of the petitioners but not in the discharge of their official duties. Therefore, the act of the petitioners in taking away the document as alleged can never be a part of their official duty. Therefore, prior sanction for prosecution under Section 197 of the CrPC was not required,” held Justice Bedi.
The next contention of the counsel for the petitioners was that the statements of the witnesses were discrepant and there was insufficient material on the record to charge-sheet the petitioners, more so, when the Indian Railways had chosen not to take any action against them.
On this, the HC observed that once these statements under Sections 161/164 of CrPC are available on record, at the stage of framing of charges, the veracity of the same cannot be examined in a petition by the HC as that would amount to appreciation of evidence which is impermissible at this stage.
“Even otherwise, defence documents relied upon by the petitioners' counsel cannot be examined by this çourt, and charges are to be framed on the basis of the report under Section 173 (2) of CrPC along with the documents attached therewith. Also, the material having been collected by the investigating agency and charges having been framed, merely because the railways department chose not to proceed against the petitioners would not be a ground to discharge the accused,” observed the court while dismissing the petition.
