HC held that a public servant cannot be prosecuted for criminal...

HC held that a public servant cannot be prosecuted for criminal conspiracy under Section 120-B IPC when sanction for prosecution under the Prevention of Corruption Act has been expressly declined. The court determined that attempting to prosecute for conspiracy alone, when the underlying offence is legally non-prosecutable, constitutes a colourable exercise of power. The prosecution's attempt to circumvent statutory protections by invoking conspiracy charges without substantive evidence was deemed improper. Consequently, the court quashed the summoning order, affirming that procedural safeguards protecting public servants cannot be indirectly undermined through conspiracy charges when direct prosecution is statutorily prohibited.