Prosecution after four years from retirement. Local authority asks CBI to file FIR against retired and retiring employees. Lodge the FIR for negligence of duty tantamounting threat to life & property. The alleged offence by churning out substandard housing flats declared unsafe by one technical expert. Building is built 10-12 years back citing criminal conspiracy amongst a huge number of technical employees, construction agencies etc. Is it tenable under the law post retirement of 7-8 years.
The present FIR is illegal because it has been lodged after the gap of four years from the date of occurrence. A retired government servant shall not be prosecuted for the offence committed beyond four years from his date of retirement.
In this scenario you should file a writ petition in the high court for the quashing of the FIR. The high court may quash the FIR because it is violating the service rules. You committed that offence while you were in government service. That offence was committed in the discharge of your official duty.
When the government servant committed an act in the discharge of his official duty then any offence arising out of that act needs sanction from the government. After retirement of that government servant however, the sanction for prosecution is not required but where the offence committed is beyond the time period of four years the government cannot prosecute him.
