Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Aug 25: The state high court has upheld the registration of corruption case against senior civil judge of Basavakalyana in Bidar, Sharanappa Sajjan, who had been caught red-handed when accepting bribe. This was the first ever case in the state in which a judicial officer was booked under Prevention of Corruption Act.

After hearing the petition filed by Sajjan questioning the validity of the criminal case filed against him, the single judge high court bench at Kalaburagi presided over by Justice A V Chandrashekhar came to the above conclusion. The bench, which dismissed the petition preferred by Sajjan, said that it would be wrong to dub primary investigation conducted by the high court vigilance squad as investigation and observed that the vigilance cell cannot be termed as police station that handles criminal cases.

This judgment has paved way for registration of cases under Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 against district sessions judges, civil judges, munsiff court judges etc after the vigilance squad undertakes investigation.

Senior civil judge of Basavakalyana court, Sharanappa Sajjan, was trapped by the high court vigilance squad when accepting bribe of one lac rupees from a person named Kashinath Posthe on December 23 last, reportedly for settling a long-standing land dispute. The high court had suspended him from service based on the report of the above squad and registered a police case under Prevention of Corruption Act. Sajjan had questioned this step arguing that there is no provision to register criminal case when the vigilance squad of the high court is investigating the matter. Sajjan had been arrested by the police last month.