TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2018 (5) TMI 2066
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.... Department, Ministry of Health. The stated crime was being investigated by the State Vigilance Commission, constituted by the State of Tamil Nadu, headed by a Vigilance Commissioner. The gravamen of the challenge to the impugned judgment is on four counts: (i) First, that the prayer for transfer of investigation of the crime in question to the CBI has already been considered and negatived by the Coordinate Bench of the same High Court in Writ Petition No. 1846 of 2017 vide judgment dated 27th January, 2017 and again in Writ Petition No. 12482 of 2017 vide judgment dated 28th July, 2017. These decisions have been completely disregarded in the impugned judgment. (ii) Second, the Petitioner though named as an Accused in the FIR was not given an opportunity of hearing nor was made a party in the public interest litigation in which the impugned judgment has been passed. Resultantly, the judgment under appeal is a nullity and liable to be set aside only on this score. (iii) Third, no special circumstances have been noted by the High Court in the impugned judgment for transferring the investigation to CBI. The High Court has not even bothered to examine the efficacy of the status r....
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.... officers as noted by the Commissioner of Police, Chennai City, in his letter dated 22nd December, 2016 addressed to the Principal Secretary, Home Department, Government of Tamil Nadu. The Court, however, found that the said petition lacked specific ground and material and, more so, the Court doubted the bona fides of the Petitioner therein and thus summarily rejected the petition vide judgment dated 27th January, 2017. As regards Writ Petition No. 12482 of 2017, filed by one K. Kathiresan, a lawyer by profession, as public interest litigation, the relief claimed was primarily to quash an order dated 30th June, 2017 granting extension of service to Respondent No. 5 therein and further, to direct registration of a case in reference to the communication sent by the Commissioner of Police, Chennai, in respect of sale of banned substances, namely, Gutkha and Pan Masala in the State of Tamil Nadu and to constitute a Special Investigation Team to investigate the case under the direct monitoring of the High Court. Thus, the primary concern in the said writ petition was about the appointment of Respondent No. 5 therein as Director General of Police on account of his name being referred to ....
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....ms of tobacco, and detection of the sources of supply. Enquiry by the Vigilance Department would not unearth secret storage and manufacturing units. Nor would such investigation be able to detect incidents of illegal import, supply and sale or nab those actually manufacturing, supplying, importing, selling or otherwise dealing with prohibited food items containing tobacco and nicotine such as gutkha. 142. Investigation by a centralized agency like the CBI would be more comprehensive and cover all aspects of the illegal manufacture, import, supply, distribution and sale of banned chewable tobacco items, including the detection of all those involved in such illegal import, manufacture, supply, distribution and sale, as also the detection of corruption and complicity of public servants and/or government servants in this regard. As observed above, there is no conflict between CBI investigation and investigation by the State machinery. Investigation can be carried out more effectively with the CBI and the Vigilance Department working in cooperation. 143. The underground gutkha business is a crime against society which needs to be curbed. We, therefore, deem it appropriate to direct ....
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....graph 129 of the impugned judgment, reliance has been placed on Dinubhai Boghabhai Solanki v. State of Gujarat and Ors. (2014) 4 SCC 626, wherein it has been held that in a writ petition seeking impartial investigation, the Accused was not entitled to opportunity of hearing as a matter of course. Reliance has also been placed in the case of Narender G. Goel v. State of Maharashtra and Anr. (2009) 6 SCC 65, in particular, paragraph 11 of the reported decision wherein the Court observed that it is well settled that the Accused has no right to be heard at the stage of investigation. By entrusting the investigation to CBI which, as aforesaid, was imperative in the peculiar facts of the present case, the fact that the Petitioner was not impleaded as a party in the writ petition or for that matter, was not heard, in our opinion, will be of no avail. That per se cannot be the basis to label the impugned judgment as a nullity. 9. Our attention was invited to the observations made in paragraph 73 in the State of Punjab (supra), which in turn adverts to the exposition in D. Venkatasubramaniam and Ors. v. M.K. Mohan Krishnamachari and Anr., (2009) 10 SCC 488 wherein it has been held that an ....
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.... may be quite difficult unless there is a fair investigation. We are absolutely conscious that direction for further investigation by another agency has to be very sparingly issued but the facts depicted in this case compel us to exercise the said power. We are disposed to think that purpose of justice commands that the cause of the victim, the husband of the deceased, deserves to be answered so that miscarriage of justice is avoided. Therefore, in this case the stage of the case cannot be the governing factor. 25. We may further elucidate. The power to order fresh, de novo or reinvestigation being vested with the constitutional courts, the commencement of a trial and examination of some witnesses cannot be an absolute impediment for exercising the said constitutional power which is meant to ensure a fair and just investigation. It can never be forgotten that as the great ocean has only one test, the test of salt, so does justice has one flavour, the flavour of answering to the distress of the people without any discrimination. We may hasten to add that the democratic set-up has the potentiality of ruination if a citizen feels, the truth uttered by a poor man is seldom listened t....