(1.) THE State challenges the order passed by the learned Special Judge(F), Shimla, in Criminal Case No. 8-S/7 of 2007, discharging all the accused for purported offences under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471, 201 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code read with Section 13(2) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
(2.) THE case urged against the respondents was with respect to illegalities in the appointment of Grade-Ill and Grade-IV employees in Himachal Pradesh State Co-operative Agriculture and Rural Development Bank, Shimla.
(3.) LEARNED counsel appearing for the respondents submit that a prima facie examination of the material on the record is permissible to ascertain as to whether the charge is groundless or not and that the material on the record justifies the framing of the charge not by testing the material by cross-examination but on a prima facie scrutiny.