Gujarat High Court
Sant vs Hon'Ble on 16 December, 2010
Author: Akil Kureshi
Bench: Akil Kureshi
Gujarat High Court Case Information System
Print
SCA/15921/2010 5/ 5 ORDER
IN
THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD
SPECIAL
CIVIL APPLICATION No. 15921 of
2010
=========================================================
SANT
SHRI ASHARAMJI ASHRAM - THROUGH ADMINISTRATOR AND - Petitioner(s)
Versus
HON'BLE
MR JUSTICE D K TRIVEDI COMMISSION & 1 - Respondent(s)
=========================================================
Appearance
:
MR
BM GUPTA for
Petitioner(s) : 1,
None for Respondent(s) : 1,
MS MAITHILI
MEHTA, ASST. GOVERNMENT PLEADER for Respondent(s) :
2,
=========================================================
CORAM
:
HONOURABLE
MR.JUSTICE AKIL KURESHI
Date
: 16/12/2010
ORAL
ORDER
1. In Sant Shri Asharamji Ashram, situated in the outskirts of city of Ahmedabad, an incident of unnatural and unfortunate death of two young inmates of the Ashram school took place, in the month of July, 2008. The State Government, thereupon, appointed one man Commission of Hon'ble Mr. Justice D.K. Trivedi(Retd.), under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952. Terms of the Commission are as follows:
"The commission to inquire into (I) the facts and circumstances leading to the death of said two school boys and (ii) the police investigation to solve the case of death of two children and adequacy of action taken."
2. This petition has been filed by Sant Shri Asharamji Ashram, challenging an order dated 20.10.2010, passed by the Commission, by which the petitioner's application Exhibit-2042 came to be disposed of, observing that the contentions raised in such application can be considered as averments, on behalf of the Ashram. In the application Exhibit-2042, following prayers were made:
"31. In view of the above mentioned facts, it is humbly submitted that:-
a. The evidence of all the above stated witnesses should be considered as false and fake and hence should be struck off from the record of the Hon'ble Commission.
b. The facts mentioned in the points from (a) to (n) in the point no.28 above should be studied in depth.
c. Mr. Praful Vaghela and Mr. Amrut Prajapati should be summoned to produce the complete cassette of which only a part of 2 minutes is produced.
d. If Mr. Praful Vaghela and Mr. Amrut Prajapati fail to produce the complete cassette, then the CD produced earlier should not be considered as true, fair and legal evidence.
e. The summons related to dead persons should be disposed off unconditionally.
f. The above mentioned all the witnesses, had left the Ashram long before the unfortunate incident of Dipesh and Abhishek. They have also mentioned in their depositions, that they do not know anything regarding the incident. Under such circumstances, the case of Dipesh and Abhishek should be investigated in the light of the scientific reports of FSL and post mortem note, the facts and findings of the Police and CID and the (fake) evidence of the above mentioned witnesses should not be taken into consideration at any juncture.
g. The issue of Black Magic is fake, fabricated and self-generated by Conspirators and Media. Hence the topic of Black Magic should be dropped from the scope of inquiry of this Hon'ble Commission."
3. In the present petition, in addition to the questioning the legality of the said order dated 20.10.2010, the petitioner Ashram has also prayed for further direction that the Commission has no power to hold inquiry or to examine the witnesses or to carry out any investigation into the subject of Black Magic or Tantrik Vidhya and further that, all the witnesses, who have been examined, their depositions be canceled and the Commission be directed not to hold any further inquiry in this direction.
4. In nutshell, it is the case of the petitioner that there is no evidence of any Black Magic having been performed, leading to the death of the two young boys. In fact, there is voluminous evidence to the contrary. Such angle is sought to be involved by certain disgrunted persons to malign and defame Sant Asaram. The angle of Black Magic is not part of the scope of the Commission's inquiry, and therefore, no witness could have been examined by the Commission in this regard. Depositions of the witnesses, already examined, therefore, should be quashed and the Commission should be prevented from examining the further witnesses, in this regard.
5. In my opinion, the Commission has been appointed under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952, and is carrying out a fact finding inquiry. Its procedure is largely left to be judged by the Commission itself. The power of the Commission are specified in Section-4 of the Act, which includes the powers of the Civil Court, for summoning and enforcing the attendance of any person from any part of India and examining him on oath, requiring the discovery and production of any document, receiving evidence on affidavits, etc..
6. The Commission has recorded evidence of several witnesses. It is in the process of collecting further evidence. It is yet to complete the inquiry, to be able to submit a final report. At this stage, I do not find that any interference is called for. The Commission has kept the entire issue, raised by the petitioner in his application Exhibit-2042, open. No final decision is rendered, thereon. At this interlocutory stage, it is neither necessary nor appropriate for me to go into the question, whether certain aspect or an angle has already been concluded in any other proceedings or not. It would always be for the Commission to take into consideration such issues, at the time of hearing, all the sides concerned and before submitting its final report.
7. To enable the Commission, to inquire into the facts and circumstances leading to the death of two school boys and the police investigation to solve the case of their death and the adequacy of the action taken, it is largely the discretionary powers of the Commission to collect the evidence, on different issues and aspects. At this stage, therefore, no writ can be issued, as prayed for by the petitioner.
With the above observations, this petition is DISPOSED of.
(AKIL KURESHI, J.) Umesh/ Top