YASH KUMAR SHARMA Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this petition under section 482, Code of Criminal Procedure the petitioner Yash Kumar Sharma has sought the quashing of F.I.R. No. 18 dated 26-5-1986 recorded against him in Police Station. City Muktsar, under section 5 of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Section 161, Indian Penal Code.

(2.) The petitioner is admittedly an employee of the Punjab Co-operative Land Mortgage Bank, Muktsar. This Bank is registered under the Punjab Co-operative Societies Act. 1961. A Full Bench of this Court bas held in Cr1. Appeal No. 618-DBA of 1983, State of Punjab v. Kesari Chand and another, decided on 13-1-1987, that an employee of a Co-operative Society is not a public servant within the meaning of Section 5 of the Prevention of Corruption Act or Section 21 of the Indian Penal Code because a Co-operative Society is not a corporation established by a statute. Clearly, therefore, the provisions of Section 5 of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Section 161, Indian Penal Code, are not applicable to the petitioner. No first information report under these sections could be lodged against him.

(3.) In these circumstances the impugned first information report is hereby quashed. It will, however, be open to the petitioner's employers to take any other legal recourse in the matter which is available to them. Petition allowed.