Supreme Court - Daily Orders
The State Of Kerala vs Adv. Dr P. Krishnadas on 16 November, 2017
Bench: N.V. Ramana, Amitava Roy
ITEM NO.6 COURT NO.9 SECTION II-B
S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A
RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
Petition(s) for Special Leave to Appeal (Crl.) No(s). 3757/2017
(Arising out of impugned final judgment and order dated 23-03-2017
in BA No. 2002/2017 passed by the High Court of Kerala at
Ernakulam)
THE STATE OF KERALA & ANR. Petitioner(s)
VERSUS
ADV. DR P. KRISHNADAS Respondent(s)
(FOR EXEMPTION FROM FILING C/C OF THE IMPUGNED JUDGMENT ON IA
7980/2017 and IA No.65267/2017-MODIFICATION OF COURT ORDER)
WITH
SLP(Crl) No. 3871/2017 (II-B)
(IA No.107189/2017-INTERVENTION APPLICATION)
Date : 16-11-2017 These matters were called on for hearing today.
CORAM :
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE N.V. RAMANA
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE AMITAVA ROY
For Petitioner(s)
Mr. Harin P. Raval, Sr. Adv.
Mr. C. K. Sasi, AOR
Ms. Nayantara Roy, Adv.
Mr. Nipun Saxena, Adv.
Mr. Manu Krishnan, Adv.
For Respondent(s)
Mr. Ranjit Kumar, Sr. Adv.
Mr. K. Rajeev, AOR
Mr. Shinoj K. Narayanan, Adv.
Mr. Bijo Mathew Joy, Adv.
Mr. Rajiv Nanda, Adv.
Ms. Kritika Sachdeva, Adv.
Ms. Kirti Dua, Adv.
Ms. Snidha Mehra, Adv.
Mr. Santosh Kumar, Adv.
Mr. Amit Mishra, Adv.
Signature Not Verified
Mr. Hemant Arya, Adv.
Digitally signed by
VISHAL ANAND
Date: 2017.11.20
Ms. Saudamini Sharma, Adv.
12:46:52 IST
Reason: Mr. Mukesh Kumar Maroria, AOR
Mr. K.V. Vishwanathan, Sr. Adv.
Mr. Renjith B. Marar, Adv.
Ms. Lakshmi N. Kaimal, AOR
-2-
Mr. Anubhav Anand Pandey, Adv.
Mr. Jaimon Andrews, Adv.
Mr. Mukund P. Unni, Adv.
UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following
O R D E R
Special Leave to Appeal (Crl.) No.3757/2017 Heard the learned Senior counsel appearing for the parties.
This Special Leave Petition is filed feeling aggrieved by an order dated 23-3-2017 passed by the High Court of Kerala granting bail to the respondent.
Initially, an F.I.R., being Crime No.204 of 2017 at Pazhayanur Police Station, was registered against the respondent–accused on 27-2-2017 at 9.39 p.m. under Sections 341, 343, 506 and later on Sections 342, 365 and 384 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code were added. The respondent-accused was arrested on 20-3-2017 and on the very same day, he was produced before the Judicial Magistrate where a bail application was moved, but it was rejected. In consequence thereof, the respondent moved an application for bail before the High Court of Kerala and on 23-3-2017, the High Court granted bail to the accused—respondent. Aggrieved by this, the present Special Leave Petition has been filed by the State.
The grounds taken at the time of filing the Special Leave Petition are that the High court has granted bail to the accused ignoring the gravity of offence even though the statement of victim clearly reveals commission of non-bailable offence by the accused. It is also contended that there is -3- likelihood of accused tampering with the evidence and influencing the witnesses, but the High Court granted him bail which should not have been granted.
This Court issued notice on 5-5-2017 and later on 7-7-2017, when the matter came up again, after hearing respondent’s counsel and having regard to the seriousness of the matter, the following order was passed:-
“When the matters came up before this Court, Mr. P.S.Narasimha, learned Additional Solicitor General appearing on behalf of the State of Kerala submitted that the State has entrusted the case (Crime Case No. 19 of 2017) to the Central Bureau of Investigation (C.B.I.) for further investigation, in view of the seriousness of the case, and requested us to adjourn the matters for two weeks. He assures that he will inform the C.B.I. to appear before this Court and defend the case.
We have also heard Mr. P.P. Rao, Mr. V. Giri and Mr. Huzefa Ahmadi, learned senior counsel appearing on behalf of the respondents. It is stated by the learned counsel for the accused that the respondents herein, after granting bail by the High Court, are not entering the Trichur District, where the Educational Institution is located and they are staying at Pallakad.
We direct that the accused, instead of staying at Pallakad, can stay at Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, until further orders. However, if the investigating agencies requires their presence at Trichur, they can go to that place as and when required.
Learned senior counsel appearing for the respondents- accused agree to the above directions. Mr. Huzefa Ahmadi, learned senior counsel has brought to our notice that the earlier S.L.P.(Crl.) No. 2296 of 2017 filed by the State against Dr. P. Krishnadas, who is the respondent in the S.L.P.(Crl.) No. 3757 of 2017) was dismissed by this Court by an order dated 27.3.2017. He has produced copy of the order dated 27.3.2017, which is taken on file. We will consider the same on the next date of hearing.” -4- Afterwards, the matter came up before this Court several times and another matter i.e. SLP (Crl) No. 3871 of 2017 also tagged along with this matter. In that matter, the learned counsel for the State urged that the case has been entrusted to the Central Bureau of Investigation (C.B.I.) and the said agency is investigating the matter. On that statement, we adjourned the case for the appearance of the C.B.I. and both the matters were being heard together. Ultimately an affidavit dated 11-11-2017 came to be filed by the C.B.I. indicating therein that they are not in a position to investigate the matter in F.I.R. No.19 of 2017 [SLP (Crl) 3871 of 2017].
Yesterday, during the course of hearing Mr. H.P. Rawal, learned senior advocate representing the State brought to our notice that in this case as many as 82 witnesses were already examined, 16 documents were seized and 5 electronic evidences were also collected and sent to Regional Forensic Scientific Laboratory, K.E.P.A., for digital analysis and forensic laboratory reports. Our attention was drawn to the affidavit dated 27-10-2017 filed in accordance with this Court’s order dated 23-10-2017, by the Deputy Superintendent of Police, District Crime Branch, Thrissur wherein it is explained that the investigation of the case has almost been completed and the case is now pending for want of (1) Expert Opinion form the Handwring Experts, RFSL, KEPA, Kerala, (2) Digital Analysis Report from Forensic Science Laboratory, Thiruvananthapuram, and (3) Detailed CDR from mobile phone service providers. Learned senior counsel further states that -5- it would take another 15 days to receive the Report from the said Laboratory.
Yesterday, we have called for the Case Diary and today we have gone through the same to ascertain the grounds on which the State is seeking for cancellation of bail. However, in the course of hearing, learned senior counsel, on instructions, without insisting for cancellation of bail, confined his arguments to continue the interim directions restraining the stay of accused-respondent at Pallakad, as there is a chance of interference by the accused in investigation besides influencing the witnesses.
We have heard Mr. Ranjit Kumar, learned Senior counsel appearing for the accused – respondent also.
Taking into consideration the request made by the learned senior counsel for the State, without going into the other aspects of the matter, we direct that the interim order passed on 7-7-2017 restraining the accused–respondent from staying at Pallakad, shall continue till the completion of trial.
Before parting with this matter, we make it clear that the order passed by the High Court clearly indicates that in some of the areas, the High court has exceeded its jurisdiction and passed some observations which are going to touch the merits of the case pending before the trial Court. In our opinion, it was unnecessary and unwarranted for the High Court to make such observations. We, therefore, expunge all those observations made in the impugned judgment, on the -6- merits of the case, which are going to affect the trial. We make it clear that the trial Court while considering the matter on merits should adjudicate it independently and uninfluenced by any of the observations made by the High Court.
The Special Leave Petition is disposed of in the afore-stated terms. Pending applications also stand dismissed. SLP(Crl) No. 3871/2017 List the Special Leave Petition tomorrow i.e., 17th November, 2017.
(VISHAL ANAND) (RENUKA SADANA) COURT MASTER (SH) ASST.REGISTRAR