KARAM CHAND Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner-Karam Chand seeks to assail the order dead 10.3.2000, by which the Special Judge, Chandigarh, has accepted the cancellation report filed by the Central Bureau of Investigations (hereinafter referred to as "the C.B.I.") in a case investigated by it, on he request of the Government of Punjab, as incorporated in notification No. SSCS/97/40 dated 7th February, 1997 to this effect.

(2.) ACCORDING to the above notification, the Governor of Punjab had accorded his consent to the extension of the powers and jurisdiction of the members of the Delhi Special Police Establishment to the whole of the State of Punjab for the "investigation of the matter concerning transfer of about 15 Acres of government land in Mohali by the Sports Department to the Punjab Cricket Association as also for other matters connected with the utilisation of the land and the funds granted by the Government to the Punjab Cricket Association to see whether any culpable offences, attempts, abetments and misuse of officials position, have been made for private benefit." This investigation was ordered despite the fact that on the land so transferred, the Cricket Stadium had already been built, whose ambience matched that of any Stadium in the World, probably on the analogy that the end product did not justify the means adopted for setting up the same. The C.B.I. was also required to enquire into whether any culpable offences are made out under the existing laws against concerned officers in the Department of Sports, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and Industries, during the period extending from 1991 to 1996. The copy of the notification dated 7.2.1997 issued by the Chief Secretary and Secretary to the Government of Punjab, Department Vigilance was forwarded to the Director, C.B.I. by D.O. No. SSCS-97/41 of the same date. On 25th February, 1997, the Under Secretary to the Government of India, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions (Department of Personnel and Training), New Delhi, issued a notification in pursuance of powers conferred on him under sub-section (1) of Section 5 read with Section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946 extending the powers and the jurisdiction of the Delhi Special Police Establishment, Delhi, for whole of the Punjab for investigation into the above case. The formal FIR was registered by the CBI, Chandigarh on the basis of the above notification on 25.2.1997 and about three years elapsed before the investigations were finalised and a report submitted on 10.2.2000. Soon after the initiation of the investigation, there was a change of the government whereupon an effort was made to withdraw the notification which was successfully contested by the C.B.I. It is probably the delay in the finalisation of the report coupled with an apparent effort to mellow down the gravity of the misdemeanour that seems to have encouraged the filing of the present petition.

(3.) IN order to appreciate the purport of the objections raised by the respondents, it may be necessary to refer to judicial precedents, which fix the scope of enquiry that this Court can launch upon in exercise of its revisional and inherent powers in cases being dealt with under the Code of Criminal Procedure. The scope, no doubt, is limited to examine the records for satisfying itself with regard to the correctness, illegality and propriety of any finding, sentence or order recorded in a criminal case. While dealing with this aspect of the case, the Apex Court in Janta Dal v. H.S. Chowdharty and others, (1992) 4 S.C.C. 305, observed as under :-