HC stays proceedings against Kuldip Sharma

Ahmedabad: After two benches of the Gujarat high court refused to hear the case, justice J B Pardiwala on Thursday stayed the proceedings initiated by a magisterial court in Anand against senior IPS officer Kuldip Sharma in a nineyear-old case. Sharma, against whom the chief judicial magistrate initiated criminal proceedings on the basis of a 2002 complaint by retired DSP Kirit Brahmbhatt, filed two petitions through advocate I H Syed in the high court, seeking quashing of the criminal proceeding against him and cancellation of the state government’s permission to prosecute him. Sharma, who is an additional DGP, is currently on deputation to Delhi.
Justice Pardiwala ordered the lower judiciary in Anand not to proceed further in the case against Sharma and also stayed the state government’s sanctioning the cop’s prosecution. Besides, the high court ordered to bring all case papers from the Anand court and sought an explanation from the state government as well as from the Anand court on why it took nine years to initiate proceedings in the case and why all of a sudden the government granted the sanction in 2010.
Sharma has raised objection to criminal process initiated by
the chief judicial magistrate on the ground of delay and jurisdiction. He has contended that Brahmbhatt filed the complaint with a vengeance as the former had put him under suspension.
Brahmbhatt had approached the court nine years back complaining that Sharma as Ahmedabad range IG had illegally ordered his arrest on October 23, 2001 causing harassment to him and his family members.
According to Brahmbhatt, Sharma had issued orders to arrest him in connection with a complaint in which the police had already filed a 'C' summary report and even the court had accepted it.
Sharma contended that the court took cognizance of the complaint of 2002 without the state government's mandatory sanction to initiate criminal process against a public servant under section 197 of the CrPC. The sanction was given only on March 31, 2010, which could be part of the strategy to harass him by the state government.
Sharma argued that the government had not granted sanction for prosecution against police inspector K K Patel, who was also present when the alleged offence took place.
In April Kuldip Sharma, had a legal battle against chief minister Narendra Modi, when the principal bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal quashed Modi’s decision to downgrade Sharma's rating in the Annual Confidential Report (ACR).
In another order, CAT had also quashed the charge sheet issued against Sharma in December 2004 proposing an inquiry against him for professional misconduct in allegedly targeting another IPS officer, GS Malik.