Third-party locus standi is unavailable in Income-tax prosecution proceedings where the statute reserves prosecution to the specified authority.

A third party has no locus standi to implead himself in a criminal miscellaneous petition seeking to quash prosecution under the Income-tax Act or to ask for vacation of interim stay orders, where the Act is a special code and prosecution can be launched only at the instance of the Commissioner of Income-tax. The CrPC does not provide for third-party impleadment in such prosecution matters, save for the limited assistance contemplated by section 301. Since a person who cannot initiate the prosecution cannot intervene as a party in proceedings relating to it, the request for impleadment was not maintainable.

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Issues: Whether a third party had locus standi to implead himself in a criminal miscellaneous petition seeking to quash a prosecution under the Income-tax Act and to seek vacating of interim stay orders, where the statute confined prosecution to action at the instance of the Commissioner of Income-tax.

Analysis: There is no provision in the Criminal Procedure Code for impleadment of a third party in a prosecution case, though a private person may, in a limited sense, assist the prosecution under section 301. The Income-tax Act constitutes a special code for the offences involved, and section 279 restricts prosecution to proceedings launched at the instance of the Commissioner of Income-tax, with power in the Commissioner to compound the offence. In such a statutory setting, a person who could not himself set the criminal law in motion could not claim a right to intervene as a party in proceedings relating to that prosecution. The decisions relied upon on public interest, standing, and social justice were held inapposite because they did not override the specific statutory restriction governing prosecution under the Act.

Conclusion: The petitioner had no locus standi to implead himself or to seek ancillary relief in the pending quashing petition, and the request for impleadment was not maintainable.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a special statute permits prosecution only at the instance of a specified authority, a third party who has no right to initiate such prosecution cannot claim locus standi to intervene as a party in the criminal proceedings.

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