~By Parth Sarthy Kaushik
The Delhi High Court bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Rekha Pillai on May 24 decided to appoint an Amicus while deciding on a petition by Anil Sharma which has challenged the constitutional validity of Section 197(1) of the CrPC. The section is about the prosecution of judges and public servants.
The bench said that the presence of an Amicus was needed, because the matter involves intricate issues dealing with constitutional and criminal law.
The petitioner has submitted that in the light of the recommendations made by the Justice Verma Committee, the central Criminal Law (amendment) Act, 2013, incorporated into the section an explanation that says: “For the removal of doubts it is hereby declared that no sanction shall be required in case of a public servant accused of any offence alleged to have been committed under section 166A, section 166B, section 354, section 354 A, section 354B, section 354C, section 354D, section 370, section 375, section 376, section 376A, section 376C, section 376D or section 509 of IPC.”
This explanation provides an exception in the section which, in effect, does away with the mandatory sanction required for the prosecution of public servants. The petition clarifies that this exception has been inserted only in respect to sexual offenses. This has been supported by the Delhi Police.
The government counsel clarified in court that this exception has been carved out, because a number of cases have come to light wherein false and motivated cases in the nature of sexual offences have been lodged against public officials. For the speedy disposal of such cases, a sanction should not act as an impediment.
The counsel for the petitioner counter-questioned: “By this logic even corruption cases can be motivated. So will you do away with the sanction for such category of cases as well?”
At that point, Justice Mittal said this is a complicated issue so the court would need assistance of a senior member of the bar.
The matter has been listed to August 21.