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Saturday, Aug 12, 2006

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High Courts asked not to misuse inherent powers

J. Venkatesan

``Don't quash criminal proceedings mechanically''

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has asked all High Courts not to misuse the inherent powers to quash criminal proceedings mechanically. It said the power should be exercised sparingly and that too in the rarest of rare cases.

A Bench of Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice Altamas Kabir said, "When exercising jurisdiction under Section 482 of the Cr.PC, the High Court would not ordinarily embark upon an enquiry whether the evidence in question is reliable or not or whether on a reasonable appreciation of it accusation would not be sustained."

Call to be judicious

Writing the judgment for the Bench, Mr. Justice Pasayat said that the court should be circumspect and judicious in exercising discretion. It should take all relevant facts and circumstances into consideration before issuing process, lest it would be an instrument in the hands of a private complainant to unleash vendetta to harass any person needlessly. At the same time, Section 482 was not an instrument handed over to an accused to short-circuit a prosecution and bring about its sudden death.

`Charges of mala fide of no consequence'

The Bench by way of caution said, "The High Court being the highest court of a State should normally refrain from giving a prima facie decision in a case where the entire facts are incomplete and hazy, more so when the evidence has not been collected and produced before the court."

The Bench said, "When an information is lodged at the police station and an offence is registered, then the mala fide of the informant would be of secondary importance. It is the material collected during the investigation and evidence led in court, which decides the fate of the accused person. The allegations of mala fide against the informant are of no consequences and cannot by themselves be the basis for quashing the proceedings."

In the instant case, the Central Bureau of Investigation lodged a First Information Report against Ravi Shankar Srivastava, an IAS officer, under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Mr. Srivastava filed a petition before the Rajasthan High Court for quashing the proceedings on the ground that the CBI had not obtained the mandatory consent from the State Government.

The High Court quashed the proceedings. The present appeal by the CBI is directed against this judgment. The apex court Bench allowed the appeal and set aside the impugned judgment.

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