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TMI Blog2011 (9) TMI 1213X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ne of the hapless victims of the abominable and woeful events which took place in the State of Gujarat between February, 2002 and May, 2002 after the abhorrent Godhra incident on 27th February, 2002. By the said petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India read with Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (for short the Code ), the Appellant had sought for a direction to the Director General of Police, State of Gujarat, to register her private complaint dated 8th June, 2006 as a First Information Report and direct investigation therein by an independent agency. By the impugned judgment, the High Court has come to the conclusion that since a remedy under Section 190 read with Section 200 of the Code was available to t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... A, 186, 187 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. However, as the police declined to take cognizance of her complaint, the Appellant filed the aforementioned petition before the High Court. Having failed to convince the High Court that it was a fit case for investigation by an independent agency, the Appellant-complainant, supported by an NGO, is before us in this appeal. 4. On 3rd March, 2008 while issuing notice to the Union of India and State of Gujarat, an Amicus Curiae was appointed to assist the Court. Vide order dated 27th April, 2009, the Special Investigation Team (for short the SIT ), which had been constituted vide order dated 26th March, 2008 to carry out further investigations in nine cases, subject 3 matter of Writ Petition No. ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... After examining the said report, on 5th May, 2011, the following order was passed: Pursuant to our order dated 15th March, 2011, the Chairman, Special Investigation Team (SIT) has filed report on the further investigations carried out by his team along with his remarks thereon. Statements of witnesses as also the documents have been placed on record in separate volumes. Let a copy of all these documents along with the report of the Chairman be supplied to Mr. Raju Ramachandran, the learned Amicus Curiae. The learned Amicus Curiae shall examine the report; analyze and have his own independent assessment of the statements of the witnesses recorded by the SIT and submit his comments thereon. It will be open to the learned Amicus Curiae ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ng with the entire material collected by the SIT, to the Court which had taken cognizance of Crime Report No. 67 of 2002, as required under Section 173 of the Code. Before submission of its report, it will be open to the SIT to obtain from the Amicus Curiae copies of his reports submitted to this Court. The said Court will deal with the matter in accordance with law relating to the trial of the accused, named in the report/charge-sheet, including matters falling within the ambit and scope of Section 173 of the Code. However, at this juncture, we deem it necessary to emphasise that if for any stated reason the SIT opines in its report, to be submitted in terms of this order, that there is No. sufficient evidence or reasonable grounds for pro ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... r the purpose of making the CBI and other investigative agencies concerned perform their function of investigating into the offences concerned comes to an end; and thereafter it is only the court in which the charge-sheet is filed which is to deal with all matters relating to the trial of the accused, including matters falling within the scope of Section 173 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. We make this observation only to reiterate this clear position in law so that No. doubts in any quarter may survive. 11. In M.C. Mehta v. Union of India and Ors. (2008) 1 SCC 407, a question arose as to whether after the submission of the final report by the CBI in the Court of Special Judge, pursuant to this Court's directions, this Court shou ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ould not confer a jurisdiction on this Court to step in. 12. Recently, similar views have been echoed by this Court in Narmada Bai v. State of Gujarat and Ors. (2011) 5 SCC 79. In that case, dealing with the question of further monitoring in a case upon submission of a report by the C.B.I. to this Court, on the conclusion of the investigation, referring to the earlier decisions in Vineet Narain (supra), Sushil Kumar Modi (supra) and M.C. Mehta (Taj Corridor Scam) (supra), speaking for the Bench, one of us, (P. Sathasivam, J.) has observed as under: 70. The above decisions make it clear that though this Court is competent to entrust the investigation to any independent agency, once the investigating agency complete their function of i ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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