1 minute read
ii. Continuance in Office After Dismissal
is not sufficient, saving, of course, any disciplinary action which such negligence or imprudence may entail.
Finally, where the disclosure of any secret document or fact is made by a public officer or servant as a result of corruption, the case would fall to be governed by the provisions applicable thereto and not by Section 131202 .
Advertisement
ii. Continuance in Office After Dismissal
Section 132 of the Criminal Code lays down:
"Any public officer or servant who, having been dismissed, interdicted or suspended, and having had due notice thereof, continues in the exercise of his office or employment shall, on conviction, be liable to imprisonment for a term from one to six months.”
This is but a variety of the crime of unlawful exercise of public functions dealt with under Section 83. In fact, the two crimes are dealt with together by article 185 of the Italian Code of 1889. Indeed, it may appear that the provision of Section 132 is superfluous as it denotes nothing more than one of the ways in which the crime under Section 83 may be committed; that the public officer or servant is therein punished because he is no longer such when he performs the act of office; that consequently whether the public officer or servant has been dismissed or suspended, or whether the agent is a person who never was a public officer or servant, the substance of the matter does not change.
The answer to all this is that the legislature has considered the act under Section 131 as a special form of abuse and provided for it a special sanction. The expediency of it is evident also on account of the precise condition therein required to make the abusive continuance in office punishable - and that is that the public officer or servant has received due notice of the cessation of his office by dismissal, interdiction or suspension, if such notice has not been given the provision of this section cannot apply, but only such disciplinary action as may be appropriate.
202 Confer Carrara, Programma Parte Speciale, Vol. V, para. 2557; Maino, op. cit., art. 177, para. 951
