Under Section 32, all officers and employees of the Authority, while acting in pursuance of the Act or rules/regulations made thereunder, shall be deemed to be public servants within the meaning of:

Section 32 deems AAI's officers and employees to be 'public servants' specifically within the meaning of SECTION 21 OF THE INDIAN PENAL CODE, 1860 - the general definitional provision for 'public servant' under criminal law - rather than being tied to the Prevention of Corruption Act's own separate (though related) definition, the CrPC's sanction-for-prosecution provision under Section 197, the constitutional protections for civil servants under Article 311, or the CPC's 'public officer' definition under Section 2(17). This IPC Section 21 deeming fiction is what enables offences like bribery, criminal breach of trust by a public servant, or obstruction of a public servant to apply meaningfully to AAI personnel acting in their official capacity, while also potentially extending certain procedural safeguards applicable to public servants generally.