BHIKHAJI VAGHAJI Vs. L K BAROT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The first five Special Criminal Applications under Article 227 of the Constitution of India and the Misc. Criminal Application no. 1418 of 1980 filed by the original accused raise common questions of law though the incidents at the root of these first five matters arise out of different criminal cases at one time pending in one or the other Court of the Metropolitan Magistrates Ahmedabad.

(2.) The Special Criminal Application nos. 3 to 7 of 1981 arise out of the orders in the criminal cases nos. 1318/79 263 717 1320 and 134 respectively in those courts. The concerned learned Magistrate in these five cases held that as the accused were Police Officers and as the prosecution was launched without obtaining the previous sanction of the State Government as required under sec. 197(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code the prosecutions were bad and so they were dropped. Being aggrieved by the said common decision criminal revision applications nos. 27/80 134 30 28 and 29/80 were filed on behalf of the original respective complainant in the City Sessions Court where the order of the learned Magistrate came to be confirmed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge again by a common order. These five special criminal applications are therefore filed by the original respective complainant of the respective complaint challenging the order of dropping the proceedings.

(3.) Misc. Criminal Application no. 1418/80 is filed by the original accused. In criminal case no. 2011/79 pending in the court of the Metropolitan Magistrate 5 court Ahmedabad the process that was issued against the original accused is sought to be dropped for want of sanction under sec. 197(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code. The original accused tiled the said Misc. Criminal Application no. 1418 of 1980 directly in this court alleging that the prosecution against the public servant was incompetent from its very inception for want of sanction of the State Government as required under sec. 197(2) of the Code.