The judgment emphasizes the importance of judicial independence, the qualities expected of a judicial officer, and the legal principles related to the transfer of public prosecutors and judicial restraint.

VINOD GOEL, J.

1. The Central Bureau of Investigation has invoked the writ jurisdiction of this Court under Article 226/227 of the Constitution of India for quashing of the impugned order dated 26.09.2017 passed by the Court of Learned Special Judge-III, CBI Tis Hazari Courts, Delhi (in short ‘Ld. Special Judge’) in Sessions Case No. 27285/2016 titled as CBI Vs. Shrikant Jain & Anr.

2. By the impugned order, the Ld. Special Judge has imposed a costs of Rs.10,000/- upon the Director of Prosecution, CBI for causing delay in adjudication of the Sessions case by not posting a Senior Public Prosecutor well in advance before the previous Senior Public Prosecutor was relieved.

3. A perusal of the impugned order and the previous proceedings in fact reflects that the learned Special Judge had casted disparaging remarks and imposed costs of Rs.10,000/- upon the Director of Prosecution, CBI for not retaining Sh. B.K. Singh, Senior Public Prosecutor CBI (in short ‘Sr. PP’) in his Court and on account of his transfer from the Court and posting of a new Public Prosecutor Sh. Tajvinder Singh in place of him.

4. The brief facts of the case are that Sh. B.K. Singh, Sr. PP was posted in the court of Ld. Special Judge. The learned Special Judge has joined there on 15.05.2017. The Ld. Special Judge started hearing the final arguments in an old case titled as “CBI vs. Shrikant Jain & Anr.” w.e.f. 29.05.2017. In this case the charges were framed against the accused persons on 15.02.2011 for stealing antiques and attempting to illegally export them out of India. The learned Sr. PP addressed detailed arguments on 29.05.2017, 05.06.2017 and 01.07.2017. He concluded arguments on 05.07.2017. The learned Special Judge heard the arguments of accused persons on 12.06.2017, 13.07.2017, 22.07.2017 and 27.07.2017. Rebuttal arguments were addressed by the learned Sr. PP Sh. B.K. Singh on 01.08.2017. However, on request of learned counsel for the accused persons, time was granted to them to submit further final arguments on 10.08.2017. In fact final arguments were concluded on 10.08.2017 and still the Ld. Special Judge listed the case for 25.08.2017 for consideration. The order dated 10.08.2017 reads as under:-

“10.08.2017

Present: Sh. B.K. Singh, Ld. Sr. PP for CBI. A-1 is present on bail along with Ld. Counsel Sh.P.R. Aggarwal.

A-3 is present on bail.

Final arguments concluded.

Put up on 25.08.2017 for consideration.

Sd/-

Special Judge,

CBI-03 (PC Act)

Delhi/10.08.2017”

5. On 25.08.2017 the Ld. Special Judge sought certain clarifications and accordingly arguments were addressed in detail by both the parties. It is observed by learned Special Judge that Sr. PP for CBI wants to file certain case laws in support of its case and adjourned the case for clarifications/filing of the case laws on 11.09.2017.

6. For disposal of this writ petition, it is necessary to note that on 06.09.2017, the Ld. Special Judge through the learned District & Sessions Judge (HQ) had written a letter to Director, CBI in his endeavour to retain Sh. B.K. Singh, Sr. PP in his Court. The letter reads as under:-

06.09.2017

“To

The Director

Central Bureau of Investigation

CGO Complex, 5B Building

Lodhi Road, New Delhi-110003

(Through : Ld. District & Sessions Judge (HQ) Tis Hazari Courts, Delhi.)

Sub: Kind attention of your good office towards the frequent transfers of Public Prosecutors.

Sir,

With utmost pain and anguish I want to bring to your kind notice about the decision of your subordinate office regarding the abrupt and frequent transfer of Public Prosecutors in Subordinate Courts.

I had joined as Special Judge-III, CBI, Tis Hazari Courts, Delhi on 15.05.2017 i.e. barely three months ago from this date and Senior Public Prosecutor Sh. B.K. Singh attached to the Court of undersigned had joined here only in the month of March, 2017. After joining my duties in the current portfolio, I had instructed the Sr. PP Sh. B.K. Singh to go through all the case files as early as possible in order to expedite the