Mumbai Court April 1945 Judgments

Emperor Vs. A.G.K. Pathan

Court: Mumbai

Reported in: AIR1946Bom86; (1945)47BOMLR990

Divatia, J.1. Mr. Ghaswala has addressed us on a point of law, that the prosecution of accused No. 1, in absence of sanction under Section 197 of the Criminal Procedure Code, is illegal. That section lays down that, when any public servant who is not removable from his office save by or with the sanction of a Provincial Government or some higher authority is accused of any offence alleged to have been committed by him while acting or purporting to act in the discharge of his official duty, no Court shall take cognizance of such offence except with the previous sanction of the Governor of that Province. Now in the present case, as I said before, accused No. 1 was appointed as Assistant Price Inspector by the District Magistrate of Nasik in his capacity as Price Controller under the Defence of India Rules. Under Section 2, Sub-section (5), of the Defence of India Act, a Provincial Government may delegate any of the powers conferred on it to any officer or authority. By virtue of that sec...