A private complaint against a public servant for corruption requires prior sanction under Section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, regardless of the complaint's stage.

ORDER :

1. Crl.M.C.No.7741 of 2025-G has been filed under Section 528 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (`BNSS' for short) by the petitioner, who is arrayed as the 1^st accused in Crl.M.P.No.1356/2024 on the files of the Enquiry Commissioner and Special Judge, Thiruvananthapuram. The 1^st respondent is State of Kerala and the 2^nd respondent is the complainant in the above Crl.M.P. Allowing Crl.M.Appl.No.2/2025, additional 3^rd respondent also was impleaded, since it was found that he had filed complaint and the same resulted in Annexure 6 and 7 orders therein. The prayer in this petition is to quash Annexure 5 private complaint (Crl.M.P.No.1356/2024) and Annexure A8 order dated 14.08.2025.

2. Crl.M.C.No.8392/2025 has been filed by the State of Kerala arraying the complainant in Crl.M.P.No.1356/2024 as the sole respondent. The prayers in Crl.M.C.No.8392/2025 are as under:

"i. Set side Annexure IV order dated 14.08.2025 to the extent it makes derogatory and disparaging remarks/observations against the competent authorities in the Government and also to the extent it orders to proceed with the complaint without obtaining prosecution sanction u/s.19 of the PC Act, 1988.

ii. Expunge the disparaging and adverse remarks or observations made by the Special Court in paragraphs 77 to 81, 91 to 97 and 106 to 110 of Annexure IV order against the competent authority in the Government and constitutional functionaries who were not parties to the proceedings.

iii. Pass such other order or further relief as this Hon'ble Court may deem fit and proper in the interest of justice."

3. I shall refer the parties in these matters as M.R.Ajith Kumar, the petitioner in Crl.M.C.No.7741/2025, the 2^nd respondent, Neyyattinkara P.Nagaraj in Crl.M.C.No.7741/2025 as complainant and Sri P.V.Anwar as the additional 3^rd respondent. State of Kerala represented by VACB will be referred as `prosecution'.

4. Heard the learned Senior Counsel for the accused Sri B.Raman Pilla appearing for M.R.Ajith Kumar; Sri M.P.Shameem Ahamed, appearing for Neyyattinkara P.Nagaraj and Advocate Sri Muhammed Firdouz, appearing for P.V Anwar. Also heard the learned Director General of Prosecution representing State of Kerala. Perused the documents.

5. I shall refer the Annexures referred in Crl.M.C.No.7741 of 2025, for discussion.

6. As per Annexure 5 Crl.M.P.No.1356/2024, Sri Neyyattinkara P.Nagaraj filed complaint before the Vigilance Special Court, Thiruvananthapuram arraying M.R.Ajith Kumar as the 1^st accused, one P.Sasi, as the 2^nd accused and other accused persons to be revealed during investigation. The allegation in Annexure A5 is that the accused persons therein committed offences punishable under Section 7 (c) and Section 13 (1)(e) read with 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Amendment Act, 2018 (`PC Act, 2018' for short) w.e.f 26.07.2018 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (`IPC' for short). According to Neyyattinkara P.Nagaraj, he is a public spirited citizen and as a member of the society he used to file public interest litigation before various forum with a view to raise various genuine grievances of general public to render justice. He has highlighted certain cases, showing his intervention in this regard. Coming to the crux of the allegation as extracted by the complainant, the same reads as under:

"That the 1^st Accused while working as a public servant in the capcity of Deputy Police Superindent (DSP), Police Superindent(SP), Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police, Addl. Director General of Polic