In what can be seen as a shocking and surprising judgment, a division bench of the Gauhati High Court has quashed a Ministry of Home Affairs resolution of April 1, 1963 through which the CBI was constituted.

An 89-page judgment passed by the division bench of Justice Iqbal Ahmed Ansari and Justice Indira Shah, while disposing of a writ application and writ petition filed by one Navendra Kumar, said that the CBI was neither established under the DSPE Act, 1946, nor was it an organ or part of the DSPE.

"We hold that CBI is neither an organ nor a part of the DSPE and that the CBI cannot be treated as a 'police force' constituted under the DSPE Act, 1946. We hereby also set aside and quash the impugned resolution (of the Union Home ministry) dated 01.04.1963, whereby CBI has been constituted," the judgment and order passed on Wednesday said. A copy of the judgment was available only on Thursday.

Going by the judgment, the CBI ceases to be a constitutionally valid organisation which is empowered to probe crimes, and that all CBI cases now stand to become null and void. In the instant case of Navendra Kumar, the division bench, however, said that the judgment would not bar the police from conducting further investigation into the case against him.

The petitioner, against whom the CBI had submitted a chargesheet in November 2007, had contended that the CBI was not a statutory body because it was not constituted under any statute, but under an executive order/resolution No 4/31/61-T, dated 01.04.1963 of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

"On a careful reading of the contents of the impunged resolution, what becomes evident is that the resolution does not refer to any provisions of the DSPE Act, 1946, as the source of its power. In other words, deriving strength from the DSPE Act, 1946, the CBI has not been constituted. One cannot, therefore, treat the CBI as an organ or part of the DSP either," the judgment said.

... contd.

Please read our terms of use before posting comments