The Bombay High Court has issued to the Maharashtra government a notice with respect to a PIL that challenges a recent amendment made to Section 156(3) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) under which no magistrate can order an FIR to be filed against a public servant without receiving sanction from the government.
A bench comprising justices N H Patil and N W Sambre has directed the state to submit a response to the petition and has set the date for the next hearing after four weeks.
Amendment Beyond Powers of State Legislature
Filed by social activist and lawyer Abha Singh, the petition asks that the amendment be declared unconstitutional and ultra vires (beyond the powers).
According to the petition, introducing the amendment was beyond the powered granted to the state legislation since it attempted to amend the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 “through the backdoor”.
New Rule Creates Logical Impossibility
The petition also claimed that the said amendment created a situation of “logical impossibility”, stating that collecting relevant facts needed the application of mind but such facts can be collected only via an investigation which typically follows an FIR.
It highlighted that it was only as a result of the police investigation that it can be determined if there was any involvement of the public employee in question in the case.
