HIGH COURT OF KARNATAKA, REGISTRAR GENERAL Vs. RAJKUMAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This criminal contempt proceedings has been initiated suo motu by this Court against the accused.

(2.) This Court, vide order dtd. 16/11/2022, issued notice to the accused and pursuant to the notice, the accused filed an affidavit dtd. 19/1/2023 stating that he filed a private complaint against the officials of Karnataka State Finance Corporation (KSFC) for the offences punishable under Ss. 403, 406, 418, 420, 426, 468, 477, 166, 167, 217, 218, 219 and 220 r/w Sec. 149 of IPC. The Criminal Court referred the matter for investigation after taking note of the documents produced in support of the complaint and the said order was challenged by the KSFC before the District Judge, Mandya in a Revision Petition which came to be dismissed. Against the said dismissal order, a criminal petition was filed before this Court in Criminal Petition No.8915/2018. The matter was listed before the learned Single Judge of this Court. Upon hearing the matter, the learned Single Judge has expressed that since the private complaint was lodged against the officials of the State, prior sanction as contemplated under the Code of Criminal Procedure was must and on account of the same, the complaint is defective.

(3.) It is further stated in the affidavit that the accused requested the learned Single Judge to call for the records. The matter was adjourned twice without any order being made to call for the records and the learned Single Judge was not inclined to hear any submissions of the accused. It is also stated by the accused that the series of setbacks in the legal proceedings has clouded his mind in such a way to suspect that his matters are under watch including the pending criminal petition. Being an advocate, he is not supposed to have such a prejudiced notion. Looking into the manner in which he has suffered in all respects on account of the actions initiated by the KSFC, he was totally misplaced and thought that the opinion expressed by the learned Single Judge in Criminal Petition No.8915/2018 might have been influenced by his brother Judge. He concedes that this is totally unfounded. Thinking that the criminal petition may go out of hand, he filed a memo seeking transfer of the said matter to another Bench making some serious remarks and has also filed a petition before the Hon'ble Chief Justice seeking transfer of the matter.