CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has refused to quash an FIR registered against sand baron J Sekar Reddy in a case of evading stamp duty of Rs 78.76 lakh and registration fee of Rs 11.25 lakh by undervaluing, in collusion with certain government officers, a land registered with the Katpadi sub-registrar office in Vellore district.

Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy recently dismissed the petitions filed by Sekar Reddy and A Abdul Muneer, who served as special deputy collector of stamps during the relevant period, seeking to quash the FIR on the ground of delay and that the land was punjai (farmland) and not a residential plot.

The matter pertains to the FIR registered by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) on May 13, 2021 against Sekar Reddy, Abdul Muneer, a sub-registrar and a few other persons on the charges of undervaluing 5.24 acres of land and registering it in 2016 as worth Rs 2.46 crore against the guideline value of Rs 13.72 crore thereby hiding the value of Rs 11.25 crore.

They approached the HC for quashing the FIR claiming that the order of the special deputy collector of stamps is quasi-judicial in nature and so it cannot be questioned. Further, the petitioners stated that the land was punjai in nature, so the valuation was accurate. Some photographs and adangal were produced in the court to show it is a farmland.

The judge noted that 5.88 acres of the land was already sold as residential plots by the vendor and the petitioners have undervalued the remaining 5.24 acres by stating that it is punjai. Rejecting the contentions on the finality of the quasi-judicial order, the judge held that a criminal case can be registered and probe be continued if the quasi-judicial order is passed for illegal pecuniary gains or out of criminal conspiracy.

Justice Chakravarthy held that photographs or adangal extract cannot be said to be an unimpeachable document. “Therefore, I am not able to conclude that the very registration of the case against the accused is barred by any principle of law or it is an abuse of process of law,” the judge said in the order.