Councillors are public servants, can’t be summoned without sanction: HC

The Punjab and Haryana high court has held that a municipal councillor is a public servant and can’t be summoned by a court in a criminal case without prior sanction from the competent authority

The Punjab and Haryana high court has held that a municipal councillor is a public servant and can’t be summoned by a court in a criminal case without prior sanction from the competent authority.

The high court bench of justice Jasjit Singh Bedi quashed a 2013 order passed by a Jalandhar district court. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The high court bench of justice Jasjit Singh Bedi quashed a 2013 order passed by a Jalandhar district court, wherein the city’s then senior deputy mayor and councillor Kamaljit Singh Bhatia was summoned by a trial court in a criminal case related to the demolition of a property that year. Bhatia had approached the high court in 2015.

“…the law relating to sanction for prosecution is concerned, the various judgments of the Hon’ble Apex Court as also this Court are categoric to the effect that cognizance of an offence cannot be taken without their being prior prosecution sanction under Section 197 Cr.P.C. (no court shall take cognisance of any offence alleged to have been committed by a public servant), where the officer concerned has acted in the discharge of his official duties,” the high court said.

The court said that as per the Punjab Municipal Act, 1976, a councillor and MC officials are public servants. The provisions of law and judgments of various courts would show that the petitioner was a public servant, who allegedly committed the offence in the discharge of his official duties and was prosecuted without sanction from competent authority, the court added allowing his plea and quashing the summoning orders.

In the case in hand, the court of additional district judge, Jalandhar, had come to the conclusion that the petitioner and MC officials had acted in the discharge of their official duty. The court had quashed summoning orders against the officials but upheld the judicial magistrate order of summoning against Bhatia holding that he was not a public servant. Hence, prior sanction under Section 197 CrPC was not required before summoning him.