RATILAL M NANAVATI Vs. STATE OF DELHI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The question which falls to be determined in the present case is whether it is within the competence-of a State Government to transfer a corruption, case from one Special Judge to another Special Judge.

(2.) The petitioners in this case are Mr. S. Y. Krishnaswamy, I. C. S., former Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Mr. C. S. D. Swamy. former Director of Fertilizers in the Said Ministry, and six employees of Messrs. Nanavati and Company Limited. It is alleged that Mr. Krishna-swamy and Mr. Swamy entered into a criminal conspiracy with the other petitioners to give higher prices to the Company for the purchase of Sulphate of Ammonia and obtained illegal gratifications for themselves. They were prosecuted under Sections 120-B, 161 and 165, Penal Code, and Section 5(2), Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947.

(3.) On 24-1-1953 the Delhi Police Establishment presented two challans against the petitioners in the Court of S. Gurdev Singh, one of the Special Judges appointed by the Delhi State Government under Section 7(2) of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1952. S. Gurdev Singh recorded the statements of a number of witnesses but as a considerable volume of other work was pending in his Court, the progress of these cases was somewhat slow and on 14-8-1953 the Delhi state Government in consultation with this Court, passed an order that the cases against the petitioners be tried by Mr. Sultan Singh Jain. After these cases had been transferred to the Court of Mr. Jain, a question arose whether it is within the power of a State Government to transfer a pending case from the Court of one Special Judge to that of another and on 20th August the High Court passed an administrative order transferring the cases to the Court of Mr. Jain. On 25th August the petitioners presented a number of petitions under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India and under Section 526, Criminal P. C., in which they challenged the validity of the order passed by the Delhi State Government & requested that the cases be retransferred to the Court of S. Gurdev Singh.