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TMI Blog2005 (10) TMI 587X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 400/- was to be paid to the Manager. Dalip Singh, on the basis of the said statement, was arrested. He was later on, however, acquitted. The District Manager, Sirsa, in charge of the Circle, by a letter dated 12.4.1995 brought to the Appellant's notice that a relative of the Respondent, working as Inspector in Vigilance at the instance of the Respondent, got the said Manager arrested as he had been nursing a grudge against him having been transferred from Dabawali on his recommendation. Upon receipt of the said letter, the Appellant addressed a letter dated 19.4.1995 to the Director General of Police, Vigilance Department, Haryana, Chandigarh, requesting him to look into the matter personally. The letter contained a statement Later on with the connivance of Shri Abhimanyu, Land Valuation Officer and his one relative who is in Haryana Police, has falsely implicated Shri Dilip Singh .The Manager has been implicated due to personal difference with Shri Abhimanyu The said letter was published in a newspaper, whereafter the Respondent filed a complaint against the Appellant herein in the Court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Sirsa, purported to be for commission of an ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... fficer deputed to work in a cooperative society is a 'public servant' or not must be determined strictly in terms of Section 21 of IPC. It was submitted that the provisions of the Haryana Civil Services (Punishment or Appeal) Rules, 1987, referred to above, are wholly inapplicable inasmuch as the definition of 'public servant' contained therein is meant to be applied for the purpose of the said rules only. As regards the availability of protection under Section 123 of the Haryana Cooperative Societies Act, 1984, the learned counsel for the Respondent would contend that only those employees who come within the purview of Section 123 thereof would be 'public servant' and not others and the Appellant herein does not answer the description of the employees specified therein. Indisputably the underlying object in enacting Section 197 of the Cr.PC is to protect a public servant from a frivolous prosecution. The said provision, however, although may not be construed too narrowly, as was held in Shreekantiah Ramayya Munipalli vs. State of Bombay [1955 (1) SCR 1177], whereupon the learned counsel for the Appellant placed reliance, cannot be ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... sought to be achieved thereby. Provisions of the said rules, therefore, cannot be invoked for affording protection under Section 197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Reliance has also been placed upon Sections 118 and 123 of the Haryana Cooperative Societies Act, 1984, which read as under : S. 118. Cognizance of offence i) No court inferior to that of Judicial Magistrate of the First Class shall try any offence under this Act . ii) No prosecution shall be instituted without the sanction of the Registrar and such sanction shall not be given without giving to the person concerned a reasonable opportunity to represent his case. S. 123.. Employees etc. to be public servants : - Any employee of cooperative society engaged in the recovery of loans under the provisions of this Act or rules or any person appointed as liquidator or arbitrator shall be deemed to be a public servant within the meaning of Section 21 of the Indian Penal Code. [Emphasis supplied] Section 117 of the said Act enumerates offences. Section 118 limits taking of cognizance of offences which come within the purview of the said Act, as would ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... on 197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 It was opined : By no stretch of imagination, could it be said that the appellant was employed in connection with the affairs of the Union within the meaning of Section 197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. The Super Bazaars are not owned by the Central Government. They are owned and managed by the Cooperative Store Limited. Pursuant to an agreement executed between the Cooperative Store Limited and the Union of India, the Central Government has advanced a loan of ₹ 40,00,000 to the Society for establishment and management of the Super Bazaars, and the Central Government also holds more than 97 per cent shares in the total shareholding of the Society. Clause 6 of the Agreement provides: That the incumbents of supervisory and other key posts including those of General Manager, Deputy General Manager, Finance Manager, Assistant General Manager, Purchase Manager, Sales Manager and Accounts Manager, by whatever other designation they may be known shall not be appointed or removed from their posts by the debtor except with the prior approval of the creditor in writing. The Super Baz ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ode of Criminal Procedure, the protection by way of sanction is not available to the officers of the public undertaking because being a juridical person and a distinct legal entity, such instrumentality stands on a different footing than the government departments. xxx xxx xxx xxx 25. It will be appropriate to notice that whenever there was a felt need to include other functionaries within the definition of public servant , they have been declared to be public servants under several special and local acts. If the legislature had intended to include officers of an instrumentality or agency for bringing such officers under the protective umbrella of Section 197 CrPC, it would have done so expressly. We have noticed hereinbefore that the petition does not come within the purview of Section 123 of the Act. At this juncture, we may notice that in B.S. Sambhu vs. T.S. Krishnaswamy [(1983) 1 SCC 11], this Court emphasized there must be a reasonable connection between the act and the discharge of official duty by the accused. The learned counsel for the Appellant submitted that the allegations made by the Respondent herein even if give ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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