The court ruled that allegations of corruption against a public servant do not qualify for protection under Section 197 Cr.P.C, necessitating a trial to resolve factual disputes.

ORDER :

1. The petitioner/A1, who is facing trial in Special C.C. No.5 of 2024 for offence under Sections 120-B, 167, 409, 468, 477A & 109 IPC and Section 13(2) r/w 13(1)(c) & (d) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 before the learned Special Judge, Special Court for cases under the Prevention of Corruption Act, Coimbatore, has filed this present Quash Petition.

2. The learned Senior Counsel appearing for the petitioner submitted that the petitioner was initially appointed as Junior Assistant in Tamil Nadu Forest Department in the year 1987 and promoted as Deputy Conservator of Forest on 16.05.2022. During the year 2011, while the petitioner was working as Assistant Conservator of Forest, the Tamil Nadu Forest Department implemented a scheme by name “Tamil Nadu Biodiversity Conservation and Greening Project” (TBGP) with assistance of Japan International Cooperative Agency (JICA) for a period of eight years from 2011-12 to 2018-19. The implementation of the project in the field is headed under the supervision and control of the Project Management Unit (PMU). The forest divisions, wildlife and other units will be designated as Divisional Management Units (DMU). For implementing this project, the Forestry Extension Officer is incharge. The Forest Rangers implementing this project would be designated as Field Management Unit (FMU). The PMU is guided by the High Level Committee (HMC) headed by the Chief Secretary to Government and the Governing body headed by the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests on all financial policies issues. The project funds will be operated through the bank accounts following the provisions in the manual and departmental procedure.

3. He further submitted that the nursery is being raised in the Forest Extension Centres under the control of the Forest Extension Officer (FEO) in every district and also in private lands on agreement basis. Generally, the nursery work (sowing) is carried out between the January and March of every year and the same is maintained between the months of April and August. The plantation work is carried out between the month of August and December. After getting sufficient growth, the plant seedlings are distributed to the farmers. At the time of disturbance of plant seedlings, a consent letter from the farmer, copy of patta and photographs obtained by the officers of the Forest Extension Office. The Forest Ranger or the Technical Assistant will prepare an estimate for the expense towards the planting of particular number of plant seedlings in a particular cluster. The transportation of the plant seedlings will be entrusted to petty or registered contractors to distribute the plant seedlings to the farmers. The petty or registered contractors to carryout the plantation work including transportation of plant seedlings. After completion of the planting works, the Forest Ranger/Technical Assistant will prepare vouchers in the form of running account bill/petty contractor bill and submit the same to FEO for sanctioning the bill. The FEO will inspect all the places and then only the bills will be cleared. The Ranger/Technical Assistant has to give a completion report as the works enumerated in the Divisional Sanction order get completed. Thereafter, the amounts will be credited in the account of the Forest Extension Officer from PMU and the Ranger will draw the amount through cheques and then distribute the cash to petty or registered contractors after getting proper vouchers.

4. The learned Senior Counsel further submitted that the case projected against the petitioner is that during the implementation of the scheme in the year 2014-15, the petitioner colluded and conspired with the other accused, fabricated the vouchers issued four cheques totalling to the tune of Rs.10,77,471/- and only a meagre amount of Rs.76,210/- given to the 48 farmers and criminally misappropriated the remaining amount of Rs.10,01,261/-. He further submitted that the petitioner was holding only additional charg