P.M. MUKUNDAN Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a petition under section 561 - A,Cr.P.C .,praying that this Court may order the Superintendent of Police to drop further proceedings which had been started by him as per a notice Ext.P1 produced in this case.The notice directed the petitioner to appear before the respondent in connection with some enquiry into the allegations made against him by the opposite party.It is argued that neither the Deputy Inspector -General of Police nor the respondent had any powers to hold enquiries of this nature and the District Superintendent of Police has no powers of investigation.All these matters need not be gone into for the disposal of this petition.

(2.) A reading of section 561 -A would show that section 561 -A comes into operation when the order impugned is passed by a court acting judicially.If the order in question is one passed by an Executive Officer of a State in his administrative capacity,section 561 -A,according to me,will have no application.Reference may be made to the decision in Kula Chandra Dutt v. Emperor (A.I.R.1946 Pat.191)In Ahmad Din v. Rijha Singh (A.I.R.1950 All.652)it has been held that "Section 561 -A empowers the High Court to interfere if necessary when something contrary to law has been done by a subordinate court.It thus presupposes that there is an order of a court.But when an order is passed by a Magistrate in his executive capacity,his order cannot be interfered under section 561 -A as that section has no application in such a case. A person aggrieved by an order of the executive authority which is in excess of his powers,under the law has other remedies and those remedies have to be sought according to law and through ordinary courts.He cannot come to the High Court and ask this Court to exercise its inherent powers under section 561 -A.The High Court is not given nor does it possess any unrestricted powers to make any order which it thinks would be in the interests of justice.The petition is therefore dismissed.