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Showing contexts for: confidential document in Union Of India And Another vs W.N. Chadha on 17 December, 1992Matching Fragments
107. From the judgment, it is seen that certain documents which are said to have been claimed as secret and confidential documents by the ASG are taken into consideration for reaching to the conclusion that there was non-application of mind.
108. Then the puzzling question that comes up for consideration is as to how all the correspondence, namely, the copy of the order of the Canton Court of Geneva and the note of compliance of the CBI came to the knowledge of the High Court especially when these documents were not available with the respondent and not produced by the Court. The clue for answering the above question is found in the judgment itself which reads thus;
113. During the argument before this Court, the Additional Solicitor General reaffirms that certain secret and confidential documents at the instance of the court - namely the letters of the CBI to the Federal Department of Justice and Police, Berne, Switzerland dated 23rd and 26th January, 1990, the order dated 3rd July, 1990 of the Cantonal Court, the note of compliance of the CBI, the letters of the Chief of Army Staff, the minutes of the meeting of the Negotiating Committee etc. etc. were handed over in a sealed cover with an oral request not to reveal the document to the other side or to refer them in the judgment since otherwise the Government would be claiming privilege on the said documents. In other words, oral privilege was claimed under Section 124 of the Evidence Act. The Additional Solicitor General continues to state that the High Court unfortunately despite the oral request made on behalf of the CBI has freely made use of those confidential documents inclusive of the copy of the order of the Cantonal Court. Leaving apart the submission made by the learned Additional Solicitor General before this Court, the impugned judgment itself pellucidly discloses that the High Court has considered certain documents which were not placed by the respondent before it, but evidently by the appellants and has relied upon those documents for quashing the letters rogatory on the ground of non-application of mind. In fact, Mr. Prashant Bhushan in his unnumbered SLP has supported the plea of the Additional Solicitor General. No specific objection has been raised from the side of the respondent with regard to the oral request made by the CBI not to make use of those confidential documents in the judgment.
114. In these circumstances, we have no other option except to hold that the High Court has used all those confidential documents which the Court ought not to have used for the reasons, firstly those documents are stated to have been claimed as secret documents and secondly ignoring the request of the CBI said to be made and without notice to the appellants herein. Besides free use of the documents, some portion of the documents are extensively quoted. The only inescapable inference that could be drawn in those circumstances would be that the Court has made up its mind as to the expendiency of quashing the letter rogatory and thereafter has conveniently made use of those documents for the end product.
(b) Whether the contract finally entered is perfect and bona fide?
(c) Whether the allegations made in the FIR do constitute an offence/offences against the respondent W.N. Chadha? and
(d) Whether the non-tracing of the names of the unnamed public servants or at least any one of them generally mentioned in the FIR is entirely due to indolence or remissness on the part of CBI?
122. In dealing with the question of the procedure followed by the Government of India in entering into the contract with Bofors the High Court has traced the history commencing from the proposal for procurement of 155 mm guns along with certain equipments and ammunition approved in April 1984 and ending with its finalisation on 24th March 1986, mostly relying on some original records inclusive of certain confidential documents which, according to the Additional Solicitor General, were made available to the Court at its instance. The fact that original documents were made use of and relied upon by the High Court is strengthened by the following observation made in the impugned judgment itself: