Karnaraka HC quashes action by Lokayukta police against sub-registrars/officials

BANGALORE: In an interesting case, the Karnataka high court has quashed the cases registered by the Lokayukta police against several Sub-Registrars and officials for not complying with the mandatory requirement of law as well as the procedure.
"The entire proceedings leading to conducting of panchnama even without registering the cases the cases as required under section 154 of criminal procedure code is illegal, contrary to law and is in violation of mandatory provisions of the criminal procedure code and it is nothing but abuse of process of law " Justice V Jagannathan has observed while quashing the FIRs registered by the Lokayukta police against L Shankara Murthy and others.The Judge has said that the case on hand is an appropriate case, 'rarest of rare' cases requiring the court to interfere under section 482 of criminal procedure code. "The FIRs and panchnama taken together do not make any allegation regarding
any offence to bring the same under the ambit of section 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act,1988.Added to this, the FIR and panchnama no where mention that petitioners demanded any bribe amount from any person or received/accepted any amount " the Judge has further observed. When the Lokayukta police raided their offices in May this year, all that was recovered was some money, which turned out to be personal money belonging to these officials.
The court has also reserved liberty to these officials to proceed against the Lokayukta police after they claimed that they were humiliated by the illegal acts of Lokayukta police wherein they were taken to custody without registering a case..