Criminal intimidation
Rajesh Tandon
(Querist) 14 July 2012
This query is : Resolved
I'm an Army officer writing to you to clarify about provisions of IPC 189-Threat of Injury to Public Servant and IPC 503, 504, 505 of criminal intimidation, insult and annoyance. In 22 years of service, I have heard of numerous instances and had certain bad experiences myself, wherein either a senior officer or his wife wants to take undue advantage of the system and start making unreasonable demands on subordinate officers, be it in terms of corruption or hitting at the the dignity of an offr for being upright and everything gets connected to ACR. In fact, I'd never succumbed to any pressure because of the threat of spoiling the ACR, but definitely one has to be cautious at least for the sake of service, which one has put in. There are times when one has to be cautious not to lose on his pensionable service for his being forthright and upright as it is not very difficult for a senior officer to find flaws in your working despite the best one puts in and fix an upright officer even if one forgets about ACR . Army officers wives are big nuisance in the system. In general, it has been seen that the senior officer, more problematic is his wife and the senior officers are not able to rein in their wives, so as to stop them from making unreasonable demand, especially when these wives do not know head and tail about the rule positions. They have been instances wherein very, very senior officer’s wife’s spoken reputation was so bad that she used to ill treat the subordinate officers, especially when she was foreign National by birth and used to address the officers as,"You Indian Army officers" hitting at the dignity of the officer class. She would openly say ,” Do you want the next rank or not?”. Surprisingly, this senior officer never ticked off his wife and people used to tolerate nuisance. However, what I have experienced that if one knows the rule/legal positions, generally it is comparatively easier to defend yourself and your reputation of a person knowing the rules and regulations carries and you are less vulnerable to pressures. Therefore, kindly advise suitably if somebody, a senior officer or his wife gives a threat of ACR, high influential of the officer himself or position of a husband/ uses influence of another senior officer to trouble you to perform/do an act which one is not legally entitled to do, can a complaint be lodged for criminal intimidation under IPC 505 or any other relevant sections? If so, then how? Is it cognisable or non, cognisable offence ? Is the complaint to be lodged by filing F I R with police or a formal complaint with magistrate. Would this constitute an offence under IPC 189-Threat of Injury to Public Servant or does the injury in IPC 189 constitute a physical injury only, excluding the mental stress created in the mind of the public servant by such a threat. Kindly suggest a suitable relevant provisions of the law as a deterrent for those making unreasonable demands on public servant. Unfortunately, if you refuse for unreasonable demand to a lady wife bluntly, she can always pollute the mind of her husband and one can be easily booked under Army act, section 63, violation of good order and military discipline. Therefore, one has to only speak in legal parlance.
Devajyoti Barman
(Expert) 14 July 2012
This is a case falls u/s 500, 506 may not be u/s 189 IPC.
You may proceed to file such u/s 200 crpc.
Rajesh Tandon
(Querist) 15 July 2012
Devajyoti saheb, very nice of you to have replied but how IPC 500 which is for defamation can be applied & IPC 506 is only punishment for criminal intimidation.Possibly when lady insults publicly saying'you indian officers" may fit into defamation but would other incidents where somebody threatens you, a senior officer or lady or start troubling you, would it not fit into IPC 503 504 & 505 KINDLY CLARIFY . PLEASE elaborate your reply. Thx
