Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Friday faulted the government and the police for registering FIRs against two additional public prosecutors (APP) (tenure) on charges of participating in an Assembly election campaign, even though they were not government employees and did not face a bar in participating in the poll process.
Justice K. Sujana was dealing with a petition filed by G. Shyam Rao and P. Sammaiah, APPs (tenure), challenging the FIR registered against them. Earlier, the home department had terminated their services on the same ground. The High Court had initially stayed the termination and the FIR was registered against them later.
The court quashed the FIR and criminal proceedings against them.
The reason given for booking the FIR was that the APPs had participated in the Assembly election campaign along with Mohammed Shakil Amir, BRS candidate from Bodhan, last year. The police said there were videos with regard to their participation in the campaign, in which BRS MLC K. Kavitha was present. The case lodged was that of a public servant participating in an election campaign.
Senior counsel V. Ravikiran Rao argued on behalf of the APPs and said they were not regular salaried employees and were appointed on a honorarium.
The High Court noted that the allegations levelled against the petitioners were vague. The case did not attract IPC Section 188 as the complaint has to be filed by an authorised public officer. In the present case, the complaint was given by an advocate to the returning officer.
The court said that there was a bar under Section 195 (1) (a) of CrPC under which written complaint has to be filed by the public servant or authorised officer and it was not followed in the present case.
