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TMI Blog2017 (5) TMI 490X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... on. There may be a conspiracy in general one and a separate one. There may be larger conspiracy and smaller conspiracy which may develop in successive stages involving different accused persons. In the instant case defalcations have been made in various years by combination of different accused persons. Thus, there can be separate trials on the basis of law laid down by this Court in Ram Lal Narang v. State (Delhi Administration) (1979 (1) TMI 241 - SUPREME COURT). In the instant case, offences are not the same offence. There can be different trials for the same offence if tried under two different enactments altogether and comprised of two different offences under different Acts/statutes without violation of the provisions of Article 20(2) or Section 300 Cr.PC. Each defalcation would constitute an independent offence Each defalcation would constitute an independent offence. There was conspiracy hatched which was continuing one and has resulted into various offences. It was joined from time to time by different accused persons, so whenever an offence is committed in continuation of the conspiracy, it would be punishable separately for different periods as envisaged in sect ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ion arose with respect to the place of trial of cases i.e. whether in State of Bihar or State of Jharkhand. A Full Bench of High Court of Patna took the view that none of the 36 cases which were of Jharkhand to be transferred to Jharkhand. CBI preferred appeals before this Court as well as Dr. R.K. Rana. Total 64 cases had been registered relating to Bihar Fodder Scam. 52 cases involved withdrawal of huge sums of money from Government treasuries falling within Jharkhand State and in 36 out of 52 cases charge-sheet had been filed by CBI before the appointed day. This Court opined that the only court which has the jurisdiction to try offences under Prevention of Corruption Act is the Court of Special Judge appointed for areas within which such offences were committed. This Court in CBI, AHD, Patna v. Braj Bhushan Prasad Ors. (2001) 9 SCC 432 has laid down thus : 33. For that purpose it is useful to look at Section 3(1) of the PC Act. It empowers the Government to appoint a Special Judge to try two categories of offences. The first is, any offence punishable under this Act and the second is, any conspiracy to commit or any attempt to commit or any abetment of any of the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... any of the 36 cases will be treated as evidence recorded by the proper court having jurisdiction. In other words, the Special Judge need not call the witnesses already examined over again for repetition of what has already come on record. This Court has clearly observed that the place of trial has to be on the basis of commission of offence where the defalcation has been made and not on the basis of place of conspiracy. Submission to the contrary had been negatived. 5. Subsequently, prayer was made for amalgamation of six cases which were pending before Special Courts in the State of Jharkhand. Matter was considered by this Court with respect to joint trial of cases including RC Nos.20A/96 and 64A/96 which were pending before the Special Judge at Patna. This Court considered the matter in Lalu Prasad alias Lalu Prasad Yadav v. State through CBI (A.H.D.), Ranchi, Jharkhand (2003) 11 SCC 786. It was urged on behalf of Lalu Prasad Yadav, Dr. Jagannath Mishra and others that it was a case of only a single conspiracy and therefore there should be amalgamation of trials as per the provisions contained in section 223 Cr.PC. This Court opined that charges were not framed at that ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... med for commission of offence of criminal conspiracy punishable under section 120B read with sections 409, 420, 467, 468, 471, 477, 477A of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (for short, the IPC ) and section 13(1)(c) read with section 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (for short the PC Act ) where defalcation/general conspiracy was alleged between 1988 and 1996 and included various treasuries of erstwhile State of Bihar. However, in RC No.20(A)/96 with respect to Chaibasa treasury, the specific charge was with respect to the period 1.4.1994 to 31.1.1995 for facilitating dishonest and fraudulent withdrawal of Government funds to the tune of ₹ 37,70,39,743/-. The case RC No.64(A)/96 which is quashed relates to Deoghar whereas the amount misappropriated is ₹ 85 lakhs as against actual allotment of funds for district of ₹ 4,73,400/- with the help of 250 vouchers and 17 fake allotment letters. Misappropriation is alleged for the period 1991 to 1994. There are 38 accused persons and one of them is Lalu Prasad Yadav. 7. In the case against Dr. Jagannath Mishra he has been convicted in RC No.20(A)/96 with respect to Chaibasa treasury in respect of misappropri ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... different falsification of books of accounts, different suppliers, Article 20(2) of Constitution of India is not attracted as the offences cannot be said to be the same. Similarly the provisions of section 300 Cr.PC are not attracted. They are different offences and transactions. Reliance has been placed upon section 212(2) of the Cr.PC so as to contend that the period of charge for offence of misappropriation shall not exceed one year. There has to be different trials for different periods. Reference has also been made to sections 219, 220 and 221 of Cr.PC. There is difference between the same kind and the same offence. In different treasuries, distinct offences have been committed though of same kind by different sets of accused persons. There have to be separate charges for distinct offences and, therefore separate trials are required to be held. Principle of issue estoppel would not arise as parties are different, duties were different for different times. Judgment of conviction has also been placed on record by CBI. 11. Prayer has also been made to condone the delay in filing the appeals in this Court for which reliance has been placed upon the affidavits/explanation which ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... and the same conspiracy and not different or distinct conspiracies. Counsel has also attracted our attention to the charges pertaining to the Treasuries of Dumka (R.C. 38 (A)/1996) and Doranda (R.S. 47A)/1996. The charges framed for withdrawal of money from these two treasuries is from 1988-1996 and 1990-1996 respectively and the period of conspiracy has been shown from 1990-1997 and 1991-1996 respectively. 14. It was also urged by Shri Surendra Singh, learned senior counsel that as per prosecution itself, there was a single conspiracy that started in the year 1988 and continued till 1996. The result of investigation in RC 20(A)/96 and RC 64(A)/96 conclusively proves that there was a single conspiracy with respect to defalcation at various Treasuries. Once accused has been punished for the conspiracy for the period 1988 to 1996 he cannot be punished again for the same offence. Without much ado and more evidence, the trial of the accused for offence under section 120B IPC is barred by Article 20(2) and section 300 Cr.PC. It was also urged that there was a core group of 20 common accused in all the prosecutions i.e. nine politicians and eleven senior administrative officers who ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... , 420, 465, 467, 468, 471, 477A IPC. His conviction has been ultimately set aside by the High Court of Jharkhand vide judgment and order dated 3.8.2012 in Criminal Appeal No.979 of 2009 in which it has been held that there was no mechanism with the Deputy Commissioner to check illegal withdrawal from treasury. Copy of allotment letter of funds to different departments was not sent to the petitioner. There was no other evidence direct or circumstantial to establish that the accused did certain acts for facilitating other accused to draw money illegally. There is no evidence of nexus or association vis a vis the other accused. No one had seen installation of laptop and computer in the residence of the accused and so the allegation of receiving the same was also discarded. Learned counsel has placed reliance upon T.T. Anthony v. State of Kerala (2001) 6 SCC 181, Amitbhai Anilchandra Shah v. C.B.I. (2013) 6 SCC 348. He has also referred to section 212 Cr.PC. FIR relating to Chaibasa is for same transactions though for different financial years but for the bar under section 212(2) Cr.PC, it would have constituted one offence, as such section 300(1) would apply. In similar circumst ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... man shall be put twice in peril for the same offence. There are two aspects of doctrine of jeopardy viz. Autrefois convict and Autrefois acquit . Autrefois convict means that the person has been previously convicted in respect of the same offence. Autrefois acquit means that the person has been acquitted on a same charge on which he is being prosecuted. Constitution bars double punishment for the same offence. The conviction for such offence does not bar for subsequent trial and conviction for another offence and it does not matter even if some ingredients of these two offences are common. Section 300 Cr.P.C. is extracted hereunder : Section 300. Person once convicted or acquitted not to be tried for same offence.-- (1) A person who has once been tried by a Court of competent jurisdiction for an offence and convicted or acquitted of such offence shall, while such conviction or acquittal remains in force, not be liable to be tried again for the same offence, nor on the same facts for any other offence for which a different charge from the one made against him might have been made under sub-section (1) of section 221, or for which he might have been convicted und ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ed may be charged with having committed all or any of such offences and such charges can be tried together. 20. Chapter XVII deals with the form of charges. Section 212 deals with contents of charge, e.g. , particulars of time, place and person. Section 212 is extracted hereunder : 212. Particulars as to time, place and person.-- (1) The charge shall contain such particulars as to the time and place of the alleged offence, and the person (if any) against whom, or the thing (if any) in respect of which, it was committed, as are reasonably sufficient to give the accused notice of the matter with which he is charged. (2) When the accused is charged with criminal breach of trust or dishonest misappropriation of money or other movable property, It shall be sufficient to specify the gross sum or, as the case may be, describe the movable property in respect of which the offence is alleged to have been committed, and the dates between which the offence is alleged to have been committed, without specifying particular items or exact dates, and the charge so framed shall be deemed to be a charge of one offence within the meaning of section 219; Provided that the time included b ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... parate trials for different years covering the period of more than one year. Same kind of offence is a different thing than the same offence for the purpose of sections 219, 220 or 300. The scheme of law is clear that separate charges for distinct offences must be framed separately and they cannot be clubbed together for more than one year. 24. This Court in Natwar Lal Sakar Lal Mody v. The State of Bombay 26 (1984) DLT 64 considered the question of joint trial of persons and offences for conspiracy as per provisions contained in section 239(d) of the old Cr.PC. This Court has laid down that separate trial is the rule and joint trial is an exception. Joint trial would be an irregular exercise of discretion if a court allows innumerable offences spread over a long period of time and committed by a large number of persons to be under the protecting wings of an all-embracing conspiracy, and if each or some of the offences can be separately tried, it would be appropriate and lawful. Joint trial prolongs the trial and causes waste of judicial time and complicates the matter which might otherwise be simple, and it would confuse the accused and cause prejudice to them. Court should ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... considered the question of joint trial in the case of criminal breach of trust. It has been observed that normal rule is that there should be a charge for each distinct offence. Court is authorized to lump up the various items with respect to which criminal breach of trust was committed and to mention the total amount misappropriated within a year in the charge. When so done, the charge is deemed to be the charge of one offence. This Court has laid down that a separate trial with respect to each distinct offence of criminal breach of trust with respect to an individual item is the correct mode of proceeding with the trial of an offence of criminal breach of trust. This Court has laid down thus : (14.) Section 222, Cr. P.C. reads : (1) The charge shall contain such particulars as to the time and place of the alleged offence, and the person (if any) against whom, or the thing (if any) in respect of which, it was committed, as are reasonably sufficient to give the accused notice of the matter with which he is charged. (2) When the accused is charged with criminal breach of trust or dishonest misappropriation of money, it shall be sufficient to specify the gross sum in respe ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ed three. (16.) Lastly, reference was made, on behalf of the appellant to sec. 235, Code of Criminal Procedure and it was urged that all these offences were committed in the course of the same transaction, and therefore, they should have been tried at one trial. Assuming, without deciding, that these offences could be said to have been committed in the course of the same transaction, the separate trial of the appellant for certain specific offences is not illegal. This section too is an enabling section. 26. In R. v. Griffith 1965 (2) AER 448 it has been laid down that a conspiracy should be tried separately to substantive counts. The Court of Appeal in England has laid down thus : 9. The practice of adding what may be called a rolled up conspiracy charge to a number of counts of substantive offences has become common. We express the very strong hope that this practice will now cease and that the courts will never again have to struggle with this type of case, where it becomes almost impossible to explain to a jury that evidence inadmissible against the accused on the substantive count may be admissible against him on the conspiracy count once he is shown to be a consp ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d down by this Court, the two conspiracies are not the same offence: the Jupiter conspiracy came to an end when its funds were misappropriated. The Empire conspiracy was hatched subsequently, though its object had an intimate connection with the Jupiter in that the fraud of the Empire was conceived and executed to cover up the fraud of the Jupiter. The two conspiracies are distinct offences. It cannot even be said that some of the ingredients of both the conspiracies are the same. The facts constituting the Jupiter conspiracy are not the ingredients of the offence of the Empire conspiracy, but only afford a motive for the latter offence. Motive is not an ingredient of an offence. The proof of motive helps a Court in coming to a correct conclusion when there is no direct evidence. Where there is direct offence for implicating an accused in an offence, the absence of proof of motive is not material. The ingredients of both the offences are totally different and they do not form the same offence within the meaning of Art.20(2) of the Constitution and, therefore, that Article has no relevance to the present case. 29. In Gopal Prasad Sinha v. State of Bihar (1970) 2 SCC 905 offenc ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e may be a conspiracy in general one and a separate one. There may be larger conspiracy and smaller conspiracy which may develop in successive stages involving different accused persons. In the instant case defalcations have been made in various years by combination of different accused persons. Thus, there can be separate trials on the basis of law laid down by this Court in Ram Lal Narang v. State (Delhi Administration) (1979) 2 SCC 322 wherein this Court has laid down thus : 11. .The offences alleged in the first case were Section 120-B read with Section 420 and Section 406, Indian Penal Code, while the offences alleged in the second case were Section 120-B read with Section 411, Indian Penal Code and Section 25 of the Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972 . We are clear, in the present case, that the conspiracies which are the subject-matter of the two cases cannot be said to be identical though the conspiracy which is the subject-matter of the first case may, perhaps, be said to have turned out to be part of the conspiracy which is the subject-matter of the second case. As we mentioned earlier, when investigation commenced in FIR. R.C. 4 of 1976, apart from the circ ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... c) In State of Bombay v. S.L. Apte (1961) 3 SCR 107 a Constitution Bench of this Court has laid down as to the issue regarding conviction under section 409 IPC and section 105 of Insurance Act. The submission of double jeopardy was repelled with respect to offences under section 11 of IPC and section 105 of Insurance Act. It was held that the offences under both the Acts are distinct due to their ingredients. So as to constitute double jeopardy two offences should be identical. (d) In T.S. Baliah v. T.S. Rengachari (1969) 3 SCR 65, appellant was sought to be prosecuted under section 177 IPC and section 52 of Income Tax Act, 1922 for furnishing wrong information in his tax returns. On consideration of section 26 of General Clauses Act, this Court held that the provision did not provide a bar on trial and conviction for the same offence under more than one enactment in case ingredients of offences are distinct. It only barred double punishment and not double conviction. (e) In V.K. Agarwal v. Vasantraj B. Bhatia (1988) 3 SCC 467 the question arose whether acquittal of an accused charged with having committed the offence punishable under section 111 read with section 135 o ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... sion same offence employed in Article 20(2) and observed that second prosecution and conviction must be for the same offence. If the offences are distinct, there is no question of the rule as to double jeopardy being applicable. This Court has observed thus : 26. What is the meaning of the expression used in Article 20(2) for the same offence ? What is prohibited under Article 20(2) is, that the second prosecution and conviction must be for the same offence. If the offences are distinct, there is no question of the rule as to double jeopardy being applicable. . x x x x x 29. It is thus clear that the same facts may give rise to different prosecutions and punishment and in such an event the protection afforded by Article 20(2) is not available. It is settled law that a person can be prosecuted and punished more than once even on substantially same facts provided the ingredients of both the offences are totally different and they did not form the same offence. (i) In Sangeetaben Mahendrabhai Patel v. State of M.P. (2012) 7 SCC 621, with respect to double jeopardy, this Court has laid down thus : 33. In view of the above, the law is well settled that in order t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... as been made on the charge of conspiracy from 1988 to 1996 which included all the treasuries of the erstwhile State of Bihar. There was no charge of separate conspiracy. Charges being similar in the cases which have been quashed. No case is made out for trial under section 120-B. Same and identical circumstances are being relied upon by the prosecution. There are no new or additional circumstances in the cases which have been quashed. The conspiracies referred to are one and the same and not different conspiracies. Thus, in view of the trial which had concluded, there cannot be further trial on the charge of conspiracy. 35. We are unable to accept the submissions raised by learned senior counsel. Though there was one general charge of conspiracy, which was allied in nature, the charge was qualified with the substantive charge of defalcation of a particular sum from a particular treasury in particular time period. The charge has to be taken in substance for the purpose of defalcation from a particular treasury in a particular financial year exceeding the allocation made for the purpose of animal husbandry on the basis of fake vouchers, fake supply orders etc. The sanctions made i ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... w, relying on the oral and documentary evidence in the case, held it as a fact that there had been a conspiracy during the years 1945-48 to cheat members of the public between some of the accused and the approvers Ramaswami Mudaliar and Vellayam Pillai examined as P. Ws. 91 and 61 respectively. The method adopted for cheating was to persuade such members of the public, as could be persuaded, to part with their money to purchase counterfeit ₹ 5 currency notes at half their face value and after having obtained their money to decamp with it. When a member of the public handed over his money, at a certain stage, one of the conspirators pretending to be a Police Officer would arrest the man who had the box containing their money and take him away with the box. The victim was thus deprived of his money without even having a single counterfeit currency note in his possession in exchange of the genuine money paid by him. We have scrutinized with care the judgments of the Sessions Judge and the learned Judge of the High Court and find that they were amply justified, having regard to the state of the evidence on the record, in coming to the conclusion that the case of the prosecution c ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Khetwani s case (supra), accused were tried for an offence punishable under section 120-B read with section 409 and section 5(2) read with section 5(1)(d) of the P.C. Act. They were all convicted by the trial court. The conviction of the appellants was upheld. The prosecution case was that in pursuance of the conspiracy, a number of licences in the name of several companies which had no existence were prepared, some of them were actually issued and that two of those licences issued were in the name of M.L. Trading Co., Bombay and were delivered to appellant by Prabhakar Karmik. The Court held that the appellant received the licences issued in the name of the fictitious firm, therefore the appellant was a member of the conspiracy with which he was charged. Charge was framed for commission of offence punishable under section 120-B IPC read with section 5(2) of PC Act. The charge framed described the conspiracy to be agreeing of the various persons, including the persons not put on trial, to do or cause to be done, illegal acts. The charge of conspiracy was not that the conspiracy was entered into with each bogus individual firm for the benefit of that firm alone in connection with t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... duty chargeable on gold and of the prohibition and restriction applicable thereto and committed an offence under section 120B IPC read with section 167 (81) of Sea Customs Act, 1878. On other counts the accused persons were charged individually with offences punishable under section 167. The scheme was that necessary finances would be arranged, remittances to foreign countries would be made through Murad, gold would be sent by air from foreign countries to Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta and other airports and the smuggled gold would be sold in India. There were several transactions of smuggling. In 1957, other accused persons joined the conspiracy. From February, 1958, seven or eight consignments of gold concealed in the rear left bathroom of the aircrafts were sent from Lori to Bombay. On 1.2.1959 the Rani of Jhansi consignment of gold was searched by customs officers at the Santacruz airport Bombay and the gold was seized. It was urged before this Court by the accused persons that evidence disclosed number of conspiracies and charge of general conspiracy was not proved. It was not a case of common conspiracy. This Court has laid down thus : 15. As to the second question the contenti ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Pedro Fernadez and the Shuhaibar brothers sent the gold from Geneva and the Middle East, carriers brought the gold hidden in jackets, mechanics concealed and removed gold from aircrafts and others helped in contacting the carriers and disposing of the gold. Yusuf, Pedro and Murad and Lakshmandas were permanent members of the conspiracy. They were joined later by Kochra, the Shuhaibar brothers and Lori and other associates. The original scheme was to bring the gold from Geneva. The nefarious design was extended to smuggling of gold from the Middle East. There can be no doubt that the continuous smuggling of gold sent by Pedro from Geneva during February 1956 to February 1958 formed part of a single conspiracy. The settlement of account between Yusuf and Pedro at Beirut did not end the original conspiracy. There can also be no doubt that the smuggling of gold from Beirut by the Shuhaibar brothers and from Bahrein by their agent Lori were different phases of the same conspiracy. The main argument was that the despatch of gold from Geneva was the result of one conspiracy and that the despatch of gold from the Middle East was the result of another separate and unrelated conspiracy. The ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... In case distinct offences are being committed there has to be independent trial for each of such offence based on such conspiracy and in the case of misappropriation as statutorily mandated, there should not be joinder of charges in one trial for more than one year except as provided in section 219. One general conspiracy from 1988 to 1996 has led to various offences as such there have to be different trials for each of such offence based upon conspiracy in which different persons have participated at different times at different places for completion of the offence. Whatever could be combined has already been done. Thus we find no merit in the submissions made by learned senior counsel appearing on behalf of accused persons. 40. It was also submitted by learned counsel appearing on behalf of Sajal Chakraborty that the principle of issue estoppel is attracted to criminal trial and has relied upon decision in Manipur Administration, Manipur v. Thokchom Bira Singh AIR 1965 SC 87 in which it has been observed that the rule of issue estoppel in a criminal trial is that where an issue of fact has been tried by a competent court on a former occasion and a finding has been reached ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... has already been acquitted in RC No.51A/96. Learned counsel had also submitted that for each separate bill, separate FIR should have been registered in case CBI stand is accepted. It was a series of acts forming part of the same transaction. It is unclear as to which of the several offences related to each bill during the tenure as District Collector was committed. Thus, there ought to be one trial only. Section 212 of Cr.PC does not cover those facts where the offence of criminal breach of trust has been clubbed with the offence of criminal conspiracy under section 120-B IPC. 42. Learned counsel has referred to decision in Emperor v. Jhabbar Mull Lakkar reported in (1922) ILR 49 Cal 924 wherein the Court has laid down thus : 6. It is conceded by the earned Counsel for the prosecution that the evidence which would be given in respect of the present charges, would be identical with the evidence given against the accused at the last Sessions, and the earned Counsel further informed me that the matter of the alleged false entries was investigated at the trial before my learned brother Mr. Justice Walmsley and the Jury. In other words, it was a part of the prosecution case, a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ich provides that if in one series of acts so connected together as to form the same transaction, more offences than one are committed by the same person, he may be charged with and tried at one trial for every such offence. It is therefore clear that no prejudice was caused to the accused by the defect in the charge. (Emphasis Supplied) The question of amalgamation and joint trial had already been concluded by this Court. The question of Autrefois acquit (double jeopardy) was not involved in the aforesaid decision. 44. Gopal Prasad Sinha v. State of Bihar (1971) 2 SCR 619 has also been relied upon for issue of estoppel. The Court has laid down: The basic principle underlying the rule of issue-estoppel is that the same of fact and law must have been determined in the previous litigation. The question then arises : Was it the same issue of fact which was determined in the earlier case ? A person may be acting as a cashier at one period and may not be acting as a cashier at another period, especially as in this case it was found that the appellant had never been appointed as a cashier. He was a temporary senior accounts clerk who was alleged to be doing the work of a c ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ant was not a gipsy on December 22, 1965, whereas the issue to be determined on the second occasion was whether he was a gipsy on March 13, 1966. 46. On the issue of estoppel, learned Solicitor General has relied upon Masur Khan v. State of U.P. (1974) 1 SCR 793 thus : The Appellant pleaded on the ground of issue estoppel. The issue was regarding his citizenship. Earlier, he had been prosecuted by the SDM, Fatehpur u/s 14 of the Foreigners Act. He was then acquitted as not being a foreigner. Now he had been detained under Paragraph 5 of the Foreigners (Internment) Order, 1962. The Court dismissed the petition and therewith the argument of issue estoppel: Here again it is to be remembered that the principle applies to two criminal proceedings and the proceeding with which we are now concerned is not a criminal proceeding. We therefore hold that there is no substance in this contention. The petition is dismissed. Whilst doing so, the Court retraced the jurisprudence on issue-estoppel starting with the verdict of Lord MacDermott in Sambasivam v. Public, Prosecutor, Federation of Malaya, 1950 AC. 458 as well as Pritam Singh v. State of Punjab (AIR 1956 SC 415) and Mani ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... estion of law in the same cases. Judicial discipline requires that such a blatant contradiction in such an important matter should have been avoided. The order passed in the case of Dr. R.K. Rana was on sound basis and though the court had noted that there was some overlapping of facts but the offences were different, it, however, has taken a different view in the impugned order for the reasons which are not understandable. The court ought to have been careful while dealing with such matters and consistency is the hallmark of the court due to which people have faith in the system and it is not open to the court to take a different view in the same matter with reference to different accused persons in the same facts and same case. Such inconsistent decision-making ought to have been avoided at all costs so as to ensure credibility of the system. The impugned orders are palpably illegal, faulty and contrary to the basic principles of law and Judge has ignored large number of binding decisions of this Court while giving impermissible benefit to the accused persons and delayed the case for several years. Interference had been made at the advanced stage of the case which was wholly unwa ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... on of delay, more so, in view of the decision in Binod Bihari Singh v. Union of India (1993) 1 SCC 572 as t*here was suppression as to when the judgment was applied or received. CBI Manual has a statutory force as held in Vineet Narain Ors. v. Union of India Anr. (1998) 1 SCC 226 and the guidelines as to time frame should have been strictly adhered to as observed by this Court. 54. On the other hand, learned Solicitor General has submitted that delay deserves to be condoned. He has relied upon the decision of this Court in Japani Sahoo v. Chandra Sekhar Mohanty (2007) 7 SCC 394 in which it has been observed that in serious offences, prosecution is done by the State and the court of law should not throw away prosecution solely on the ground of delay. Mere delay in approaching a court of law would not by itself afford a ground for dismissing the case. He has also referred to Sajjan Kumar v. Union of India (2010) 9 SCC 368 to contend that a prosecution should not be quashed merely on the ground of the delay. The aforesaid decisions cited of Japani Sahoo and Sajjan Kumar (supra) are with respect to the delay in institution of the case not with respect to sufficient c ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... applications, we deem it appropriate to condone the delay in filing the appeals in this court. 57. In this case, we are surprised at the conduct of the CBI in such important matters how such delay could take place. The CBI ought to have been careful in filing the Special Leave Petitions within limitation considering the factual matrix of the case. The criticism made by the senior counsel for respondent is not wholly unjustified. CBI ought to be guided by its Manual. It is expected of it to be more vigilant. It has failed to live up to its reputation. In the instant case, lethargy on its part is intolerable. If CBI fails to act timely, peoples faith will be shaken in its effectiveness. Let the Director of CBI look into the matter and saddle the responsibility on a concerned person. In important cases Director, CBI should devise methodology which should not be cumbersome as reflected in these cases, otherwise in future, Director, CBI cannot escape the responsibility for delay in such cases to be termed as deliberate one, which is intolerable. Being the head of the institution it was the responsibility of the Director, CBI to ensure that appeals were filed within limitation. There ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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