IMPORTANT POINTS
(1) Employee of a co-operative society which is controlled or aided by Government is covered within comprehensive definition of word ‘public servant’ as defined under P.C. Act.
(2) A public servant need not be a Government/civil servant, but a Government/civil servant is always a public servant.
(3) Courts should not place reliance on decisions without discussing as to how factual situation fits in with fact situation of decision on which reliance is placed.

ORDER

Corruption hurts everyone. Corruption erodes the trust of a common man in the system. Corruption effects the society, the industry, the economy, the mankind and the nation at large. Corruption has been in existence even during ancient times and it will continue to exist and our vision has to be to curb the same and make our nation corruption free.

2. Petitioner who is the sole accused in Crime No.2/2021 registered by the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB), Chickkaballapura, for the offences punishable under Sections 13(1)(b) read with 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (for short, ‘P.C. Act’), has filed this petition under Section 482 Cr.PC with a prayer to quash the FIR and all further proceedings in Crime No.2/2021 which is now pending before the Court of Principal District & Sessions Judge, Chickkaballapura.

3. Brief facts of the case as revealed from the records are, petitioner is working as a Project Manager in Nirmithi Kendra, Chikkaballapura Taluk and District, which is a society registered in the year 2008 under the provisions of the Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960. The Governing Body of the Nirmithi Kendra comprises of the Deputy Commissioner of the District as the Chairman, Chief Executive Officer of the Zilla Panchayat as the Executive Chairman, Deputy Secretary (Development) of the Zilla Panchayat as the Member Secretary, the Project Manager of Kolar District Nirmithi Kendra, the Executive Engineer, Zilla Panchayat Engineering Division, the District Welfare Officer, Chikkaballapur, the DDPI, Chikkaballapura, the Project Manager, Chickkaballapura Nirmithi Kendra, amongst others as members. The administration of the Kendra is governed by the Governing Body. The principal object of the Kendra is to develop skills in construction and to undertake the civil construction works assigned by the Government.

4. On receipt of a source report that the petitioner who is working as a Project Manager in District Nirmithi Kendra, Chikkaballapura, was possessing disproportionate assets as against the known sources of his income, the Inspector of Police, ACB, Chikkaballapura, had forwarded the said report to the Superintendent of Police, ACB Central Zone, Bengaluru, based on which, FIR in Crime No.2/2021 was registered against the petitioner. Being aggrieved by the same, petitioner has approached this Court with a prayer to quash the same.

5. Learned Counsel for the petitioner submits that the respondent-authority has no power to register a case against the petitioner under the provisions of the P.C. Act, for the simple reason that the petitioner is not a public servant. He submits that the petitioner is an employee of Nirmithi Kendra which is a society and the said society has not been receiving any funds either from the State Government or the Central Government. He submits that in identical circumstances, this Court in the case of Gopinath alias Gopinathsa v. The Superintendent of Police, Karnataka Lokayukta, Bijapur & Another, 2014(4) KCCR 3668, has held that the employee of the Nirmithi Kendra cannot be termed as a public servant, and therefore, had quashed the criminal proceedings initiated against the petitioner therein under the P.C. Act by the Karnataka Lokayukta Police. He submits that the said judgment was challenged by the State before the Hon’ble Supreme Court and the special leave petition was dismissed. He also submits that relying upon the judgment in Gopinath’s case (supra), a coordinate bench of this Court in Crl.P.No.169/2014 had quashed the entire proceedings in respect of the petitioner therein who was also an employee of the Nirmithi Kendra. He refers to Annexure-D which is a communication issued by the Principal Secretary to the Government, Housing Department, to the President of Bengaluru Nirmithi Kendra, and submits that in the said communication, the request for deputation of employees of the Nirmithi Kendra to other departments of the State was declined on the ground that the e