The Bombay High Court today issued a notice to the Maharashtra government on a PIL challenging a recent amendment to section 156(3) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), as per which a magistrate could not order an FIR against a public servant without the prior sanction of the government.
A bench of justices N H Patil and N W Sambre directed the state to respond to the petition and posted the matter for hearing after four weeks.
The petition was filed in September by social activist and lawyer Abha Singh. It had sought for the amendment to be declared unconstitutional and ultra vires (beyond the powers).
The petition claimed that bringing in the amendment was beyond the powers accorded to the state legislature as it intended to amend the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 "through the backdoor".
It also claimed that the impugned amendment created a "logical impossibility", contending that while an application of mind as regards the relevant facts was necessary for the grant of sanction, such facts could only be collected through an investigation, which followed an FIR.
The petition said the course of investigation should only be determined after the probe revealed the involvement of the public employee.
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