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

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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 respondent, Mr. Ramesh Gandhi, is one of the

members of the above-mentioned private company and shown to be

the seventh accused in the above-mentioned FIR. He filed writ

petition No. 352/2001 on the file of the Calcutta High Court praying

that the above-mentioned FIR be quashed. By the judgment under

appeal, the Calcutta High Court allowed the writ petition quashing

the FIR.

4.

The substance of the accusation in the FIR is that all the

accused entered into a criminal conspiracy to confer an illegal and

unjust benefit on the above-mentioned private company. In the

process, the accused, “intentionally and dishonestly” suppressed

certain relevant and crucial facts (in the various cases filed before

the Calcutta High Court and also this Court to which the accused

were parties), which resulted in orders being passed both by this

Court as well as by the High Court favourable to the private

company.

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5.

FIR reads as follows:

“DELHI SPECIAL POLICE ESTABLISHMENT, RANCHI

BRANCH

FIRST INFORMATION REPORT

Crime No.RC 13(A)/2000(R), Date and time of Report :

15.11.2000 at 1700 Hrs.

Place of occurrence with State : Calcutta (West Bengal), Ranchi

(Jharkhand)

Date and time of occurrence : 1990-91 to 2000

Name of complainant or informant with address : Through Source

Offence : U/s. 120B r/w 420 IPC and Sec. 13(2) r/w 13(1)(d) of PC

Act, 1988.

Name and address of the accused : (1) Shri P.N. Tiwary, the then

Coal Controller, Calcutta (retd.)

(2) Shri R.P. Srivastava, the then G.M. Sales, CCL, Ranchi (retd.)

(3) Shri S.K. Srivastava, G.M. (Sales), CCL, Ranchi

(4) Shri B. Akla, CMD, CCL, Ranchi

(5) Shri K.M. Singh, the then G.M., Argada Area, CCL

(6) Shri Sudarshan Singh, the then Area Sales Officer Argada

Area, CCL, presently Superintending Engineer (E&M), N.K. Area,

CCL

(7)

Shri Ramesh Gandhi, Prop. M/s. Continental Transport

Constn. Corpn., (CTCC), Dhanbad (Pvt).

(8) Shri Mahesh Gandhi of M/s. CTCC, Dhanbad (Pvt.)

(9) M/s. Continental Transport Construction Corpn. (CTCC),

Dhanbad (Pvt.)

Action taken : Regular case registered and investigation taken up.

Investigation Officer: Shri A. Prasad, DSP, CBI, SPE, Ranchi

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INFORMATION

A reliable information has been received to the effect that Shri

P.N. Tiwary, the then Coal Controller (since retd.), Calcutta, Shri

R.P. Srivastava, the then G.M.(Sales), CCL, Ranchi (since retd.),

Shri S.K. Srivastava, the then GM.(Sales), CCL, Ranchi, Shri B.

Akla, the then Chief of Marketing, Coal India Limited, Calcutta,

Director (Technical) and (Projects and Planning), CCL and

presently Chairman-cum-Managing Director, Central Coalfields

Ltd. (CCL), Ranchi, Shri K.M. Singh, the then G.M., Argada Area,

CCL, Shri Sudarshan Singh, the then Ar