The Karnataka High Court on Thursday directed the government to justify whether it has power to issue directions to the Director of Prosecution for withdrawing any criminal cases under Section 321 of the Code Criminal Procedure, 1973.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice S. Vishwajith Shetty issued the direction on a PIL petition filed by an advocate.
The petitioner has alleged that the governments have abused the process of law over the years in directing the Director of Prosecution to withdraw the criminal cases in a large number of cases while pointing out that over 500 such cases were ordered to be withdrawn from 2014 till May 2020. It has been contended in the petition that the government cannot issue any direction for withdrawal of criminal cases as Section 321 gives independent power to the public prosecutors and the State government cannot issue a direction. Though the petitioner has questioned more than 10 different orders passed by the government based on the decision of the State government since 2014 for withdrawal of criminal cases, the court said that it may consider a few recent orders.
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