Case Law Details
The Supreme Court today held in the case of Manohar Lal Sharma Versus The Principal Secretary and Ors. that no approval from the Centre is required by CBI to prosecute senior bureaucrats in court-monitored corruption cases, strengthening the arms of the agency to go ahead against the officials without taking prior sanction from government.
REPORTABLE
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
CRIMINAL/CIVIL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION
WRIT PETITION (CRIMINAL) NO.120 OF 2012
Manohar Lal Sharma
Versus
The Principal Secretary and Ors.
Date of Pronouncement – December 17, 2013
WRIT PETITION (CIVIL) NO.463 OF 2012, 429 OF 2012, 498 OF 2012, 515 OF 2012, 283 OF 2013
ORDER
R.M. LODHA, J.
The question for the purposes of this order really resolves itself into this: whether the approval of the Central Government is necessary under Section 6A of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946 (“DSPE Act” for short) in a matter where the inquiry/investigation into the crime under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (“PC Act” for short) is being monitored by the Court. It is not necessary to set out the facts in detail, suffice, however, to say that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered preliminary enquiries (PEs) against unknown public servants, inter alia, of the offences under the PC Act relating to allocation of coal blocks for the period from 1993 to 2005 and 2006 to 2009. Few regular cases have also been registered. In pursuance of the orders passed by this Court, the inquiries and investigations into the allocation of coal blocks are being monitored by this Court and the CBI has been submitting reports about the status of the progress made in that regard.
2. On 08.05.2013, the Court noted that in the matter of investigation, CBI needed insulation from extraneous influences of the controlling executive. On that day, the Court wanted to know from the learned Attorney General, whether the Central Government was intending to put in place the appropriate law for the independence of the CBI and its functional autonomy and insulate it from extraneous influences so that CBI is viewed as a non-partisan investigating agency. The learned Attorney General sought time to seek instructions and report to the Court by way of an affidavit on behalf of the Central Government. The matter was, accordingly, fixed for July 10, 2013.
3. In pursuance of the order dated 08.05.2013, an affidavit was filed by the Central Government. In that affidavit various actions which were taken in compliance of the directions of this Court in Vineet Narain1 were indicated. In the affidavit, it was also stated that a Group of Ministers (GoM) has been constituted to consider the aspects noted in the order of 08.05.2013. The GoM had proposed certain amendments in the law; the proposals of GOM have also been approved by the Cabinet.
4. On 10.07.2013, the Court observed that the amendments as proposed in the DSPE Act were likely to take some time and, accordingly, put to the learned Attorney General two queries, first, as to why clarification should not be made that the approval from the Central Government under Section 6-A of the DSPE Act for investigation of the offences alleged to have been committed under the PC Act is not necessary as it is the stand of the Government that the power of supervision for investigation has already been shifted from the Government to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and, second, why the approval of the Government was necessary in respect of “Court-monitored” or “Court-directed” investigations.
5. In Vineet Narain1, this Court was approached under Article 32 of the Constitution allegedly as there was inertia by the CBI in the investigations into Jain Diaries case where the accusations made were against high dignitaries. The background that necessitated the monitoring of the investigation by this Court is indicated in the first paragraph2 of the judgment. The Single Directive 4.7(3)3 which contained certain instructions
