Legal Provisions of Section 185 of Indian Penal Code, 1860.
Illegal purchase or bid for property offered for sale by authority of public servant:
Illegal purchases or illegal bidding for property offered for sale by the authority of public servant under certain situations have been made punishable under this section. The section states that where any sale of property is being held by the lawful authority of a public servant, as such, whoever either purchases or bids there for any property on account of any person, whether himself or any other, about whom he has knowledge that he does not hold a capacity under law to purchase that property at that sale, or bids for such property without having any intention to perform the obligations under which he lays himself by such bidding, shall be punished with simple or rigorous imprisonment for a term extending up to one month, or with fine extending up to two hundred rupees, or with both.
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ADVERTISEMENTS:
The section requires that the sale being held must be by the lawful authority of the public servant. There must be knowledge on the part of the purchaser or bidder that the person for whom he is purchasing or bidding is legally incapacitated to purchase that property. If such is not the case then the prosecution must establish that the purchaser or bidder did not have intention to perform the obligations of the bidding. Since the word used in the section is ‘property’, it means any property whether corporeal or not.
The offence under this section is non-cognizable, bailable and non-compoundable, and is triable by presidency magistrate or magistrate of the first or second class.