Punjab and Haryana HC quashes FIR against senior govt execs

GURUGRAM: The Punjab and Haryana high court has set aside an order by the Gurugram district court directing police to register an FIR against senior bureaucrats and officials in a case of illegal constructions.
Calling the district court order "mindless" and "mechanical", the high court pointed out that no sanction was taken from the government before the senior officials were prosecuted. The petition, lodged in 2020, was about illegal construction of warehouses, factories and houses on a Sector 94 land marked as an "open area" in the master plan.
While hearing the petition by RTI activist Raman Sharma, the sessions court had in July 2020 directed the police to file an FIR under CrPC Section 156 (3) against the then MCG commissioner, Vinay Pratap Singh, then director of the town and country planning department, K Makrand Pandurang, then HSVP administrator (Gurgaon) Jitender Yadav, then estate officer-2 of HSVP Vivek Kalia, senior town planner Ravi Prakash Sihag, district town planner (enforcement) Ved Prakash Sehrawat, DTP (planning) RS Batth and several others.
Apart from different sections of the IPC, the FIR lodged at Sector 10 police station quoted provisions of the Punjab Scheduled Roads and Controlled Areas (Restriction of Unregulated Development) Act, Haryana Corporation Act, Haryana Development and Regulations of Urban Areas Act, Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, Environment (Protection) Act, Prevention of Corruption Act, Money Laundering Act, and so on.
While setting aside the district court order on October 19, Justice Karamjjit Singh of the high court said, "No previous sanction was sought by the complainant to prosecute the petitioner." The high court observed that it was a settled law that even at the state of Section 156(3) CrPC, there must be an application of mind while directing an investigation. "The court concerned cannot act in a mechanical and mindless manner. The application of mind should be reflected in the order. From the perusal of the impugned order, which has been reproduced above, it appears that the court concerned passed the said order without due application of the mind, just in a mechanical manner," the order read.
The district court's order was challenged by Vinay Pratap Singh, the MCG commissioner when the FIR was lodged. "The high court eventually set aside the earlier order," he told TOI on Saturday.
Earlier, Sharma had moved the sessions court, alleging that senior bureaucrats and officials had failed to prevent illegal constructions in Sector 94. The petitioner had pointed out that the whole of Gurgaon was notified under the Controlled Area Act and no construction could be carried out without approval from the authorities concerned.