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TMI Blog1966 (8) TMI 86X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ember of the Board. It appears that a sum of Rs. 4,000 of the Board had been invested in four National Plan Savings Certificates in the Bhavani Post Office. It was alleged that the appellant cashed them on February 11, 1959 and did not bring the amount in the account books of the Panchayat Board. The defence of the appellant was that he signed the certificates and handed them over to P.W. 4, the Deputy Panchayat Officer of the block within which the village was located. This was done by the appellant because P.W. 4 approached him and asked him that the Board should subscribe through him for small savings certificates for Rs. 7,000 just as the Panchayat had subscribed Rs. 7,000 through Tahsildar representing the Revenue Department. For that ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ution was, however, given in this case by the Collector and not by the Government under powers purported to have been delegated to him under s. 127 of the Madras Act which provides : 127. (1) The Government may, by notification, authorize any authority, officer or person to exercise in any local area, in regard to any panchayat or any class of panchayats or all panchayats in that area, any of the powers vested in them by this Act except the power to make rules; and may in like manner withdraw such authority. .................................................. 5. The High Court held that no sanction of the Government was necessary as the appellant had ceased to hold the office of President when the prosecution was launched and furt ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ] F.C.R. 159 was a decision of the Federal Court on the necessity for sanction under s. 270 of the Government of India Act, 1935, which is similar to s. 197(1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure and s. 106 of the Madras Act. The facts in that case were that a Sub-Assistant Surgeon was charged under s. 409 with having dishonestly removed certain medicines from a hospital which was under his charge, to his own residence, and under s. 477-A, with having failed to enter them in the stock book. The sanction of the Government had not been obtained for the prosecution under s. 270 of the Government of India Act. The question for decision in that case was whether such sanction was necessary. It was held by the Federal Court that the charge under s. ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... fficials, cannot accede to the view that the relevant words have the scope that has in some cases been given to them. A public servant can only be said to act or to purport to act in the discharge of his official duty, if his act is such as to lie within the scope of his official duty. Thus, a judge neither acts nor purports to act as a judge in receiving a bribe, though the judgment which he delivers may be such an act; nor does a Government medical officer act or purport to act as a public servant in picking the pocket of a patient whom he is examining, though the examination itself may be such an act. The test may well be whether the public servant, if challenged, can reasonably claim that, what he does, he does in virtue of his office. ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e official duty as such or it may be committed within the scope of the official duty. Where it is unconnected with the official duty there can be no protection. It is only when it is either within the scope of the official duty or in excess of it that the protection is claimable. The same principle has been expressed by this Court in Om Prakash Gupta v. State of U.P. [1957] S.C.R. 423 in which it was pointed out that sanction to the prosecution of a public servant under s. 409 of the Indian Penal Code is not necessary since the public servant is not acting in his official capacity in committing criminal breach of trust. In a later case - Satwant Singh v. The State of Punjab [1960] 2 SCR 89, it was held that if a public servant commits ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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