{"id":286788,"date":"2023-03-13T16:00:04","date_gmt":"2023-03-13T10:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/?p=286788"},"modified":"2023-03-17T17:54:08","modified_gmt":"2023-03-17T12:24:08","slug":"elected-ward-members-of-wangbal-gram-panchayat-are-public-servants-under-prevention-of-corruption-act-1988-manipur-high-court-rejects-anticipatory-bail-of-ward-members","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2023\/03\/13\/elected-ward-members-of-wangbal-gram-panchayat-are-public-servants-under-prevention-of-corruption-act-1988-manipur-high-court-rejects-anticipatory-bail-of-ward-members\/","title":{"rendered":"Elected Ward Members of Wangbal Gram Panchayat are \u201cpublic servants\u201d under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988: Manipur High Court rejects anticipatory bail of the Ward Members"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n\tdocument.title = 'Elected Ward Members are Public Servants under PC Act: Manipur HC |SCC Blog'\n\tdocument.querySelector('meta[name=\"description\"]').setAttribute(\"content\", \"Manipur High Court holds that elected Ward Members of Gram Panchayat are public servant under the Prevention of Corruption Act.\");\n<\/script><\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;\">\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 3%;\"><b>Manipur High Court:<\/b> In a case wherein the elected Ward Members of Panchayat were accused for fraudulently misappropriating huge Government money under MGNREGS for wrongful gain, a Single Judge Bench of A. Guneshwar Sharma noted that the linking of the job card holders was made to other persons&#8217; accounts, therefore, the Court held that there was cheating and misappropriation on the part of the petitioners. The Court further held that the elected ward members were &#8220;public servants&#8221; under the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0002825997\">Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988<\/a>, therefore, the charge under the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0002825997\">Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988<\/a> against the petitioners was maintainable.<\/p>\n<p><b>Background<\/b><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 3%;\">Petitioner 1 and Petitioner 2 (&#8216;Accused persons&#8217;), elected members of Wards of Wangbal Gram Panchayat were accused persons under Section <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0001561375\">120-B<\/a> r\/w Sections <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0001561758\">420<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0001561739\">403<\/a> of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0002726960\">Penal Code (&#8220;IPC&#8221;), 1860<\/a> r\/w Sections <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0001564434\">13(2)<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0001564434\">13(1)(a)<\/a> of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0002825997\">Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988<\/a>. The accused persons earlier approached Special Judge (PC), Manipur praying for grant of anticipatory bail under Section <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0001519739\">438<\/a> of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0002726935\">Criminal Procedure Code, 1973<\/a> and the same was rejected on the ground that the petitioners had fraudulently misappropriated huge Government money under MGNREGS for their wrongful gain. Consequently, they approached this Court by way of the present applications.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 3%;\">It was submitted by the accused persons that they had no right power and privilege to do anything regarding encashment of money for the wages of the job card holders and the same was dealt by the Panchayat Officials. Further, it was contended that the elected Ward Members do not fall within the meaning of <i>&#8220;public servant&#8221;<\/i> under Section <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0001564441\">2(c)<\/a> of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0002825997\">Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988<\/a> and as such registration of FIR against them was not maintainable. Therefore, they prayed should be released on anticipatory bail.<\/p>\n<p><b>Analysis, Law, and Decision<\/b><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 3%;\">The issue for consideration before this Court was <i>&#8220;whether the elected members of Panchayat were public servants?<\/i>&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 3%;\">The Court relied on <i>M. Karunanidhi<\/i> v. <i>Union of India<\/i>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0000011395\">(1979) 3 SCC 431<\/a>, wherein the Supreme Court held that <i>&#8220;a Chief Minister was a public servant within the meaning of Section <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0001561494\">21(12)<\/a> of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0002726960\">IPC<\/a> as he was getting salary from state exchequer for performing public function&#8221;<\/i>. The Court also relied on <i>P.V. Narasimha Rao<\/i> v. <i>State (CBI\/SPE)<\/i>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0000025841\">(1998) 4 SCC 626<\/a>, wherein the Supreme Court held that <i>&#8220;the Members of Parliament and State Legislatures were public servants within the meaning of Section <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0001564441\">2(c)(viii)<\/a> of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0002825997\">Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988<\/a>&#8221;<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 3%;\">The Court further noted that it was clear from the preamble of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-9000724135\">Manipur Panchayati Raj Act, 1994<\/a> that the Panchayat Body was mandated to perform the function of local Self-Government in the rural areas of Manipur and for matter connected therewith and incidental thereto. Further, Section <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-9000068631\">2(k)<\/a> of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-9000068912\">Manipur Rural Local Bodies Ombudsman Act, 2013<\/a> defined members of District Council\/Panchayat including its Pradhan or Adhyaksa as <i>&#8220;public servants&#8221;<\/i>. The Court opined that <i>&#8220;there was no doubt that administration of local Self-Government was a public duty within the meaning of Section <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0001564441\">2(b)<\/a> of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0002825997\">Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988<\/a>&#8221;<\/i>, therefore, the Court held that <i>&#8220;the elected members would be &#8220;public servants&#8221; within the meaning of Section <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0001564441\">2(c)(viii)<\/a> of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0002825997\">Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988<\/a>&#8221;<\/i>. The Court further rejected the contentions of the Counsel for the petitioners regarding the non-maintainability of the offence under the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0002825997\">Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 3%;\">The Court further noted that the linking of the job card holders was made to other persons&#8217; accounts and hence, the Court held that there was cheating and misappropriation on the part of the accused persons. The Court also noted that they had never appeared before the Investigating Officer and participated in the investigation and without properly examining the petitioners and conducting interrogation, the whole picture of the conspiracy and the fraudulent activities could not be discovered. The Court also noted that many of the job card holders were not provided with full payment and a large part of the wages were retained by the petitioners in collusion clearing indicating materials for the offence of criminal conspiracy, cheating and misappropriation of money. Therefore, the Court rejected the bail applications filed by the accused persons.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 3%;\">[<span style=\"font-weight: bold; color: #632423;\">Laishram (O) Athokpam Thoinu v. The Officer-in-Charge, Vigilance &amp; Anti-Corruption Police Station, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink\/kgjR3r0f\">2023 SCC OnLine Mani 91<\/a>, decided on 3-3-2023<\/span>]<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p>Advocates who appeared in this case:<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left: 18pt;\">For the Petitioners: Advocate S. Jibon;<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left: 36pt;\">Advocate Ms. S. Pritibala;<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left: 36pt;\">Advocate N. Mahendra;<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left: 18pt;\">For the Respondents: Advocate RK Umakanta.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 18pt;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #000080;\">*Judgment authored by: Justice A. Guneshwar Sharma<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><i>The Manipur High Court rejected anticipatory bail to the elected Ward members of the Panchayat who were charged for fraudulently misappropriating huge Government money.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":286222,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,10],"tags":[13011,32378,9781,55915,7471,2675],"class_list":["post-286788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-casebriefs","category-highcourts","tag-anticipatory-bail","tag-cheating","tag-conspiracy","tag-elected-ward-members","tag-manipur-high-court","tag-public_servant"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - 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Nobin Singh, J. allowed a writ petition filed by a retired public servant challenging the notice of enquiry issued against him under Rule 9(7) of the Manipur Public Servants\u2019 Personal Liability Rules, 2006. 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Petitioner moved the Court under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Case Briefs&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Case Briefs","link":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/category\/casebriefs\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":196016,"url":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2018\/05\/15\/collector-directed-to-exercise-discretion-under-s-14b-of-the-maharashtra-village-panchayats-act\/","url_meta":{"origin":286788,"position":5},"title":"Collector directed to exercise discretion under Section 14B of the Maharashtra Village Panchayats Act","author":"Saba","date":"May 15, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Bombay High Court: A writ petition filed against the decision of the Collector was allowed holding that the Collector ought to have exercised power of discretion before mechanically disqualifying the petitioner from contesting elections. 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