Sushanta Karati Vs State of West Bengal (Calcutta High Court)
Calcutta High Court held that criminal proceeding initiated in null and void as the proceeding has been initiated without a sanction order from the commissioner which is a mandatory precondition.
Facts-
Allegation against the petitioner is of concealing the sales figures of his business pertaining to the year from 2009-2010 to 2013-2014(up to 03.12.2013) and by doing the same evading tax upon sales of his product. A criminal case was initiated being Chatterjeehat Police Station Police Case No. 250 of 2015 dated 08.08.2015 u/s. 175/176/177/465/467/477/477A of the IPC. The petitioner has challenged the proceedings thereunder. The connected G. R. Case No. 5854 of 2015 is now pending in the trial court.
Conclusion-
The petitioner is now facing proceedings with civil consequences like imposition of penalty upon him. With the same cause of action, he has also been subjected to criminal proceedings as above. The criminal proceeding has been initiated without a ‘sanction’ order from the Commissioner, as envisaged in law to be a mandatory precondition for initiation thereof. All these facts unfailingly point out to the inherent illegality and nullity of the proceedings initiated against the petitioner. There should not be any hesitation to hold that in case the said proceeding is allowed to be continued against the petitioner, the same would amount to be an abuse of the process of court.
