Reportable

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION

CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 1356 OF 2004

Union of India & Ors.

…….. Appellants

Versus

Ramesh Gandhi

……… Respondent

J U D G E M E N T

Chelameswar, J.

1.

This appeal arises out of a judgment of the High Court of

Calcutta dated 23^rd November, 2001 in Writ Petition No. 352/2001.

The appellants herein were the respondents in the above-mentioned

Writ Petition.

2.

An FIR came to be registered on 15^th November, 2000 in the

Delhi Special Police Establishment, Ranchi Branch in Crime No. RC

13(A)/2000 (R) under Section 120B read with Section 420 IPC and

Section 13(2) read with Section 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of

Corruption Act, 1988 against nine accused of whom the first

1

accused was the Coal Controller at the relevant point of time. The

next five accused were the officers of Central Coalfields Limited

(hereinafter ‘CCL’. for short), which is a subsidiary of Coal India

Limited (hereinafter ‘CIL’, for short). Accused No.9 is a Private

Limited Company (hereinafter ‘private company’, for short) and

accused Nos. 7 and 8 are the members of the said private company.

3.

The sole resp