SATENDER KUMAR ANTIL Vs. CENTRAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Mr. Siddharth Luthra, learned Amicus Curiae has taken us through the Compliance Reports filed by the High Courts. There are four High Courts listed for non compliances i.e., Delhi, Meghalaya, Telangana and Uttarakhand. It appears that for Meghalaya and Uttrakhand, Compliance Reports were filed before the Court but copy not given. None appears for the two High Courts. We see no reason why the orders of this Court cannot be complied with by serving a copy so that proper assistance is made available to us and even the Counsels have not cared to appear. As far as Delhi and Telangana are concerned, Counsels are present but Compliance Report of Order, dtd. 3/2/2023 not filed.

(2.) Counsels have produced before us a bunch of Orders passed in breach of the Judgment in the case of Satender Kumar Antil v. CBI & anr. only as samples to show how at the ground level despite almost 10 months passing, there are a number of aberrations. It is not as if these Judgments have not been brought to the notice of the Trial Courts and in fact have even been noted, yet orders are being passed which have a dual ramification i.e., sending people to custody where they are not required to be so sent and creating further litigation by requiring the aggrieved parties to move further. This is something which cannot be countenanced and in our view, it is the duty of the High Courts to ensure that the subordinate judiciary under their supervision follows the law of the land. If such Orders are being passed by some Magistrates, it may even require judicial work to be withdrawn and those Magistrates to be sent to the Judicial Academies for upgradation of their skills for some time. Amongst the illustrative Orders, very large number of them happens to be from Uttar Pradesh and we are informed that Orders passed specially in Hathras, Ghaziabad and Lucknow Courts seem to be in ignorance of this law. We call upon the Counsel for the High Court of Allahabad to bring this to the notice of the Hon'ble the Acting Chief Justice so that necessary directions are issued to ensure that such episodes don't occur, including some of the suggestions made by us above.

(3.) Another aspect which is sought to be pointed out by learned Counsel is that not only is there a duty of the Court but also of the Public Prosecutors to plead correct legal position before the Court as officers of the Court. Illustrations are being given once again where the submissions of the Public Prosecutors are to the contrary. In this behalf Mr. Maninder Singh, learned Senior Counsel submits that even in an earlier Order passed by this Court in Aman Preet Singh v. C.B.I. Through Director, 2021 (3) MWN (Cr.) 6 (SC) : 2021 SCC Online SC 941, this aspect was flagged as under: