Karnataka High Court.
Credit: DH File Photo
Bengaluru: The high court has quashed Lokayukta police proceedings against eight secretaries/panchayat development officers, who were exonerated in the disciplinary proceedings.
“It is trite that in a departmental enquiry probabilities would be preponderant and in a criminal trial the charge will have to be proved beyond all reasonable doubt. Therefore, if an employee could not be found guilty on preponderance of probability he can hardly be found guilty in a criminal trial, which requires proof beyond all reasonable doubt,” Justice M Nagaprasanna said while allowing the petitions filed by BM Mahadevappa and others.
In September 2014, the state government had directed the Lokayukta to conduct an investigation about misappropriation and irregularities in procurement of kits and name boards under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. In 2022, the Lokayukta police filed a chargesheet against 72 persons, including the petitioners.
The petitioners contended that while the Lokayukta probe was underway, disciplinary proceedings too were instituted against them on the same set of facts. They stated that in 2018, the enquiry officer exonerated them. Subsequently, in March 2023, the state government withdrew all proceedings and investigations by the Lokayukta which was earlier ordered in 2014. The petitioners claimed that while on one hand the disciplinary proceedings exonerated them and on the other, the order entrusting the investigation itself had been withdrawn.
Justice Nagaprasanna noted the Apex Court judgements in the PS Raja and Ashoo Surendranath Tiwari cases. The top court has clearly delineated that, if allegations in the departmental inquiry could not be proved on merit and the person is held to be innocent, criminal prosecution on the said facts cannot be permitted to be continued on the underlying principle of criminal trial needing higher standard of proof.
“If the elucidation of law by the Apex Court is pitted to the facts obtaining in the case at hand, the unmistakable inference that could be drawn is obliteration of the criminal proceedings on twin circumstance, of the petitioners getting exonerated in the departmental enquiry and the foundation itself being withdrawn by the State. In that light, I deem it appropriate to obliterate the proceedings against the petitioners, failing which, it would become an abuse of the process of law and result in miscarriage of Justice,” the court said.