Relief for SAD leader Kamaljit Bhatia in a demolition case of 2010

Deepkamal Kaur

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Jalandhar, March 17

Coming as a major relief for Akali leader and ex-Senior Deputy Mayor Kamaljit Bhatia, the court of Justice Jasjit Singh Bedi of the Punjab and Haryana High Court had on Friday quashed the order of his summoning in the case of partial razing of the factory of city-based industrialist Jyoti Sarup in 2010.

The orders, which have been quashed, include order of summoning issued to him by Judicial Magistrate 1st Class, Jalandhar, on September 9, 2013 and order in revision that had been passed by Additional Sessions Judge, Jalandhar, on October 6, 2014.

Jyoti Sarup, owner of M/s Oriental Tools Corporation, situated in the Basti Guzan locality, had alleged that on September 22, 2010, Bhatia illegally got portion of his premises razed using the MC machinery. The court had ordered Bhatia and the MC contractor, Parminder Singh, to face trial for offences punishable under Sections 452 (trespassing), 166 (public servant disobeying the law), 167 (public servant framing incorrect document), 427 (mischief), 382 (theft made after preparation), 511 (offences punishable up to life imprisonment), 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen properties), 414 (assisting in concealing stolen property), 201(causing disappearance of evidences) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC. Following the demolition, Jyoti Sarup had filed a complaint in the court on January 29, 2012. The case was instituted in the court on December 24, 2012.

The three other summoned in the case — Rahul Gupta, the then Joint Commissioner, Hemant Batra, the then Municipal Town Planner, and Rajiv Rishi, the then Inspector Municipal Corporation — had filed their revision petitions against the summoning order of September 9, 2013.

The court of Additional District Judge had concluded that they had acted in the discharge of their official duty and the court could not have taken cognisance in the absence of the sanction under Section 197 of the CrPC. Thus, their summoning order had been set aside and they were discharged. Even Bhatia had moved a revision petition against the order of summoning but it was dismissed on October 6, 2014, on the ground that he was not a public servant.

Bhatia had challenged this order through his counsel Mandeep S Sachdev in the High Court. After arguments, the court concluded that a combined reading of Section 417 of the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act along with Section 21 of the IPC and Section 197 of the CrPC would clearly 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 under Section 197 of the CrPC. Thus the order of summoning and order in revision were set aside and the proceedings against him were ordered to be quashed.