The petitioner, who is arrayed as accused No. 1 in Cr.No.80/2015 of Lokayukta police station, Bangalore Urban Division has filed this petition under Article 226 and 27 of the Constitution of India r/w 482 Cr.P.C. to quash the proceedings initiated against him in Cr.No.80/2015 for the offences punishable under Sections 13(1)(d) r/w 13(2) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and Sections 409, 468, 471, 420 r/w 120B IPC.

2. One Smt. Siddamma, the second respondent filed a private complaint dated 24.11.2015 before the Superintendent of Police, Lokayukta, Bangalore City. It is alleged in the complaint that the complainant is the owner of the property bearing Site No. 14, ‘Q’ Block, formed in Sy. Nos. 132 and 133 of Katriguppa, Banashankari 3rd Stage, Bangalore formed by Bhavani Housing Cooperative Society Limited. The site measures 30’ x 40’. Originally, the site was allotted to one K.S. Sowmya @ Soundarya by Bhavani Housing Cooperative Society Limited. A sale deed dated 22.6.1999 was executed by the society in favour of K.S. Soumya. Possession certificate dated 11.7.2001 was issued to K.S. Soumya. K.S. Soumya @ Soundarya died in an Aircrash accident on 17.4.2004. Soumya had agreed to sell the schedule property in favour of the complainant. But due to her sudden death, she could not execute the sale deed. As such, a sale deed dated 24.9.2005 was executed by G.S. Raghu, S/o. Subramanya Iyer to whom Soumya @ Soundarya had married in favour of the complainant in the office of Sub-Registrar, Basavangudi, Bangalore. An affidavit dated 23.9.2005 was also sworn to by K.S. Manjula the mother of Sowmya. The complainant was in actual possession and enjoyment of the schedule site. The complainant is aged more than 80 years suffering from all kinds of ailments. On number of occasions, she was admitted and treated as inpatient in major hospitals in Bangalore. The son of the complainant Narasimha Murthy visited the schedule property on 15.3.2015. It was still a vacant site. When he again visited the schedule property on 18.8.2015 while returning to his residence on way from his office, he was shocked to see a construction coming on the schedule property. Immediately, he called the complainant his mother over telephone and informed to her and thereafter approached the jurisdictional police. The police failed to take any action on the ground that the matter is civil in nature. On further discreet enquiry, the complainant came to know that the petitioner who was working as Joint Registrar of Cooperative Society in collusion with the Secretary of Bhavani Housing Cooperative Society M.H. Dayanand, one Smt. S. Nagarathna, Smt. Bhagyalaxmi and one Chandrappa set-aside the sale deed executed by the society in favour of Soundarya clandestinely with ulterior motive to knock off the schedule property for extraneous reasons and consideration. Therefore, the complainant filed a complaint against the petitioner Thimmaiah and four others for the aforesaid offences. The complaint came to be registered in Cr.No.80/2015 of Lokayukta police station, Bangalore Urban District for the offences punishable under Sections 13(1)(d) r/w 13(2) of Prevention of Corruption Act and Sections 409, 468, 471, 420 r/w 120B IPC and FIR has been forwarded to the Special Judge. The investigation is going on. At this stage, the instant writ petition came to be filed by the petitioner, who is arrayed as accused No.1 to quash the proceedings mainly on the ground that the petitioner was working as Joint Registrar of Cooperative Societies and that he was discharging judicial function as a judge while passing the impugned order and therefore cognizance taken without obtaining previous sanction to prosecute is bad in law and as such proceedings initiated against the petitioner are liable to be quashed.

3. Both the Respondents are served and are represented by their Counsel. The first Respondent has filed written submissions. The second Respondent has filed a detailed statement of obje