Pondy med admissions scam: Court refuses to quash FIR against officials
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Chennai: The Madras high court held that the CBI’s FIR against four senior administrators overseeing admission for professional education in Puducherry could not be quashed as the CBI’s territorial jurisdiction covers the entire country. Hence, the officials would be facing a CBI probe for irregularities in post-graduate medical admissions this year.
Justice G Jayachandran, passing orders on a plea moved by the Centralised Admission Committee (Centac) of Puducherry members K V Raman, B R Babu, V Govindaraj, K Pajaniradja and M Jonathan Daniel on Thursday, said, “The FIR registered against the petitioners is for offences under IPC as well as Prevention of Corruption Act, which extends to the whole of India except to the state of Jammu and Kashmir, and applies to all citizens of India and outside India... There is no necessity to invalidate the action by misinterpretation of the provisions of law. The petitioners are already under the scanner. They are not charged for any offence. If they have any valuable defense, they can establish the same by co-operating with the investigation. There is no necessity to put spokes in the wheel of investigation for unsustainable reasons.”
The case in question against the four officials would be probing if they had entered into a criminal conspiracy during March-July 2017 and cheated bona fide students, who were issued provisional admission, by denying them seats. Instead, they facilitated private medical colleges to admit students not sponsored by Centac. At least 65 ineligible students were admitted into PG medical courses run by various private institutions under management quota, the CBI said.
Taking cognizance of the offence, the CBI’s anti-corruption bureau registered an FIR in September 2017 under sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy) read with 420 (cheating) of IPC and under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Questioning the FIR, the officials said Puducherry had its own police force to take care of such offences, and therefore unless the Union territory gave consent for the CBI, the central agency could not exercise its power here.
Justice Jayachandran said, “The cognizable offence is brought to the notice of CBI which has parallel jurisdiction to investigate notified offenses in the Union territory of Puducherry and the same has been brought to the notice of this court. This court is satisfied that prima facie materials are available and the CBI alone is competent to investigate the complaint which has interstate ramification in the administration of medical education.”
He added, “This court holds that the CBI has territorial jurisdiction over Puducherry by virtue of section 2(2) and 5 of Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1940 to register and investigate the offences notified under the act to which the consent of the Union territory is not required.”
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Chennai: The Madras high court held that the CBI’s FIR against four senior administrators overseeing admission for professional education in Puducherry could not be quashed as the CBI’s territorial jurisdiction covers the entire country. Hence, the officials would be facing a CBI probe for irregularities in post-graduate medical admissions this year.
Justice G Jayachandran, passing orders on a plea moved by the Centralised Admission Committee (Centac) of Puducherry members K V Raman, B R Babu, V Govindaraj, K Pajaniradja and M Jonathan Daniel on Thursday, said, “The FIR registered against the petitioners is for offences under IPC as well as Prevention of Corruption Act, which extends to the whole of India except to the state of Jammu and Kashmir, and applies to all citizens of India and outside India... There is no necessity to invalidate the action by misinterpretation of the provisions of law. The petitioners are already under the scanner. They are not charged for any offence. If they have any valuable defense, they can establish the same by co-operating with the investigation. There is no necessity to put spokes in the wheel of investigation for unsustainable reasons.”
The case in question against the four officials would be probing if they had entered into a criminal conspiracy during March-July 2017 and cheated bona fide students, who were issued provisional admission, by denying them seats. Instead, they facilitated private medical colleges to admit students not sponsored by Centac. At least 65 ineligible students were admitted into PG medical courses run by various private institutions under management quota, the CBI said.
Taking cognizance of the offence, the CBI’s anti-corruption bureau registered an FIR in September 2017 under sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy) read with 420 (cheating) of IPC and under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Questioning the FIR, the officials said Puducherry had its own police force to take care of such offences, and therefore unless the Union territory gave consent for the CBI, the central agency could not exercise its power here.
Justice Jayachandran said, “The cognizable offence is brought to the notice of CBI which has parallel jurisdiction to investigate notified offenses in the Union territory of Puducherry and the same has been brought to the notice of this court. This court is satisfied that prima facie materials are available and the CBI alone is competent to investigate the complaint which has interstate ramification in the administration of medical education.”
He added, “This court holds that the CBI has territorial jurisdiction over Puducherry by virtue of section 2(2) and 5 of Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1940 to register and investigate the offences notified under the act to which the consent of the Union territory is not required.”
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