BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday commenced suo motu proceedings to quash a case initiated against a judicial officer in Ballari by entertaining a private complaint, ignoring the protection granted to judges.A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice M Nagaprasanna passed the order, directing the Registrar General to file suo moto criminal proceedings under Section 482 of CrPC to quash the private complaint pending before Senior Civil Judge and JMFC only in so far as the first accused – the judicial officer, and place the same before the court on July 27.
According to the order, one Manjunath filed a private complaint under Section 200 of CrPC against Vijay Kumar S Jatla, Civil Judge and JMFC, Ballari district, showing him as Accused no 1. Manjunath had filed a complaint on the administration side of the Chief Justice, making certain grievances against the judicial officer about a statement made during remand proceedings, while passing order for granting 14 days custody and dismissal of the protest petition.
In response to this, the Secretary of the Chief Justice informed him that the remedy is available on the judicial side, regarding the dismissal of protest petition and grant of 14 days custody. However, treating it as permission granted to prosecute the judicial officer, the complaint filed before the Principal District Judge in Ballari was entertained and the order sheet shown that the matter was posted for recording the sworn-in statement of the complainant, the bench noted.The bench further said that in view of the absolute protection granted to judicial officers under the Judges (Protection) Act, 1985, the complaint could not have been entertained and registered against the judicial officer.