NDLI: Shadakshari Vs. State of Karnataka & Anr.

Content Provider	Supreme Court of India
e-ISSN	30484839
Language	English
Access Restriction	NDLI
Subject Keyword	Sanction Public servant Fabrication of record Discharge of official duties
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Law Judgement
Jurisdiction	India
Act(s) Referred	Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974)
Case(s) Referred	Referred Case 0 Referred Case 1 Referred Case 2 Referred Case 3 Referred Case 4
Case Type	Appeal
Court	Supreme Court of India
Disposal Nature	Appeal Allowed
Headnote	Issue for Consideration Whether sanction u/s. 197 Cr.P.C. is required to prosecute respondent No. 2 who faces accusation amongst others of creating fake documents by misusing his official position as a Village Accountant, thus a public servant. The competent authority has declined to grant sanction to prosecute. High Court has held that in the absence of such sanction, respondent No. 2 cannot be prosecuted and consequently has quashed the complaint as well as the chargesheet, giving liberty to the appellant to assail denial of sanction to prosecute respondent No. 2 in an appropriate proceeding, if so advised.Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 – s.197 – Sanction under – Appellant-complainant lodged an FIR alleging that respondent no.2 and another were irregularly creating documents of property in the name of dead person despite knowing the fact those were fake documents – The High Court observed that respondent no.2 was a public servant – The offence complained against him, as per prosecution, was committed while discharging his duties as a public servant – Sanction sought by the investigating officer was denied – Consequently, the High Court held that since sanction was refused, prosecution for criminal offence against public servant cannot continue – Propriety:Held: It is settled that s.197 Cr.P.C. does not extend its protective cover to every act or omission of a public servant while in service – It is restricted to only those acts or omissions which are done by public servants in the discharge of official duties – The question whether respondent No.2 was involved in fabricating official documents by misusing his official position as a public servant is a matter of trial – Certainly, a view can be taken that manufacturing of such documents or fabrication of records cannot be a part of the official duty of a public servant – If that be the position, the High Court was not justified in quashing the complaint as well as the chargesheet in its entirety, more so when there are two other accused persons besides respondent No.2 – There is another aspect of the matter – Respondent No.2 had unsuccessfully challenged the complaint in an earlier proceeding u/s. 482 Cr.P.C. – Though liberty was granted by the High Court to respondent No.2 to challenge any adverse report if filed subsequent to the lodging of the complaint, instead of confining the challenge to the chargesheet, respondent No.2 also assailed the complaint as well which he could not have done – The High Court erred in quashing the complaint as well as the chargesheet in its entirety. [Paras 23, 25]Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 – s. 197 – Ambit, scope and effect of:Held: The object of such sanction for prosecution is to protect a public servant discharging official duties and functions from undue harassment by initiation of frivolous criminal proceedings. [Para 19]
Judge	Hon'ble Mr. Justice Ujjal Bhuyan
Neutral Citation	2024 INSC 42
Petitioner	Shadakshari
Respondent	State Of Karnataka & Anr.
SCR	[2024] 1 S.C.R. 429
Judgement Date	2024-01-17
Case Number	256

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
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7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

Shadakshari Vs. State of Karnataka & Anr.

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