The statements made before the Commission cannot be used for contradiction or impeaching credibility, as per Section 6 of the Commissions of Inquiry Act.

A. S. NAIDU, J.

( 1 ) RELYING upon Section 6 of the commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952, a petition was filed before the learned Sessions judge, Khurda at Bhubaneswar in S. T. No. 161 of 1999 and S. T. No. 53 of 2000 by the accused persons under Section 340, Cr. P. C. praying for drawing up prosecution against p. Ws. 3, 15, 36 and 39 for having deliberately given false evidence in the Sessions trials. The said petition having been rejected by order dated 15-2-2003, the present criminal Misc. case is filed.

( 2 ) THE accused-petitioners are facing trial under Section 302, I. P. C. read with other sections for committing murder of Graham stains and others. The Central Government by Notification had appointed Justice D. P. Wadhwa under the Commissions of Inquiry act to inquire and report. The report was submitted and was placed before the Union cabinet and was approved. According to the petitioners who are accused in the abovementioned Sessions cases, the aforesaid P. Ws. were also examined in the wadhwa Commission and the statements made by them in Court are contradictory to the statements made before the Commission and according to Mr. Mohapatra, learned counsel for the petitioners, it is a fit case where a proceeding should be initiated against the said witnesses for deliberately giving false evidence in Court.

( 3 ) FOR appreciating the arguments, Section 6 of the Commissions of Inquiry Act is quoted herein below :"6. Statements made by persons to the commission No statement made by a person in the course of giving evidence before the Commission shall subject him to, or be used against him, in any Civil or Criminal proceeding except a prosecution for giving false evidence by such statement : provided that the statement (a) is made in reply to a question which he is required by the Commission to answer, or (b) is relevant to the subject matter of the inquiry. "

( 4 ) MR. Mohapatra putting emphasis on the sentence "except a prosecution for giving false evidence by such statement" appearing in Section 6 of the Act, supra forcefully submitted that as the aforesaid witnesses have given false evidence in Court as would be apparent on a comparison of their depesition recorded in Court with the statement by them before the Wadhwa Commission, they are liable to be prosecuted.

( 5 ) IT will be worthwhile to mention here that in fact, two petitions were filed by the accused-petitioners before the Sessions judge, one under Section 311, Cr. P. C. to recall some witnesses for further cross-examination and the other, under Section 340, cr. P. C. Both the petitions were disposed of by a composite order dated 15-2-2003.

( 6 ) MR. Padhi, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the C. B. I. relying upon a decision of the Supreme Court in Kehar Singh v. State (Delhi Administration), AIR 1988 SC 1883 : (1989 Cri LJ 1), submitted that the contentions raised by Mr. Mohapatra are not tenable in law inasmuch as the words "except a prosecution for giving false evidence by such statement" would connote to the statement made in reply to a question which is required by the Commission to be answered or is relevant to the subject matter of inquiry. That being the clear position of law, any statement made by the petitioner before'the Sessions Judge would not invite initiation of any prosecution under Section 340, Cr. P. C. Mr. Padhi further submitted that Challenging the order dated 15-2-2003 passed by the learned Sessions Judge, khurda earlier a Crl. Misc. case was filed by the present petitioners before this Court which was registered as Crl. Misc. Case No. 391 of 2003 and this Court by its Order dated 27-2-2003 disposed of the said criminal misc. case and as such, the present case for the self-same relief is not maintainable.

( 7 ) AFTER hearing learned counsel for both the parties, I called for the records in Crl, misc. Case No. 391 of 2003 which was admittedly filed by some of the petitioners. The prayer in the said petition reads as follows :"the Hon