The Himachal Pradesh High Court todayquashed the FIR against former chief minister Prem KumarDhumal and other accused in the matter related to giving re-employment to former IPS officer Amar Nath Sharma.
The court quashed the FIR again Dhumal, P C Kapoor, Ravi Dhingra and A N, Sharma. The proceeding in the lowercourt in this regard was alsoquashed.
The Court observed that allegationcontained in the FIR dated 17.6.2014 and the final report did notconstitute offence of cheating under section 420 and criminalconspiracy under section 120-B of IPC and criminal misconduct under section 13(2)of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
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Justice Rajiv Sharma heard thepetition filed by Dhumal challenging the orders of the SpecialJudge (Forest), Shimla, on the ground that the prosecuting agency/HomeDepartment has misled the trial Court by not placing both the orders of theGovernor of Himachal and it has been passed without taking cognizance of theorders dated March 21, 2015 and January 21, 2015.
Thethen Governor of HP, Urmila Singh, had expressed the opinion that sanction under section 19 of Prevention of Corruption Act was not required, while on March 21 the GovernorKalyan Singh reviewed the January 21 order and denied prosecution sanction against Dhumal.
Dhumal had alleged that theprosecution had suppressed the March 21 orders of the Governor from theCourt and no cognizance can be taken for any offence alleged to have beencommitted by a public servant during discharge of official duty without anymalafide.
During the hearing, it was observed by the Court that the decision was taken by Dhumal on legal advice and therecommendation of the Principal Secretary (Home) and the Chief Secretary without any malafide, complicity and favour.
Further, he had acted in discharge of hisofficial duty and moreover, there was nothing on record wherein either thePrincipal Secretary (Law), the Principal Secretary (Home) and the ChiefSecretary had stated that they had recommended the matter on the directionsof Dhumal.
