59 of 1960
Petition under Article 32 of the Constitution of India for enforcement of Fundamental Rights
A section R Chari section N Andley J B Dadachanji Rameshwar Nath and P L Vohra for the Petitioners
section M Sikri Advocate General for the State of Punjab H section Doabia Additional Advocate General for the State of Punjab M section Punnu Deputy Advocate General for the State of Punjab and D Gupta for the Respondents
October 28
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by section K DAS J
This is a writ petition
The three petitioners before us are 1 R P Kapur a member of was serving as a Commissioner in the State of Punjab 2 Sheila Kapur his wife and 3 Kaushalya Devi his mother in law
They have moved this Court under article 32 of the Constitution for the enforcement of their rights under articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution which rights they say have been violated by the respondents who are the State of Punjab Sardar Pratap Singh Kairon Chief Minister thereof and certain officials police administrative and magisterial who have been conducting or are connected with the investigation or inquiry into a number of criminal cases
instituted against the petitioners
We shall refer to some of these officials later in this judgment in relation to the part which they have played or are playing in those criminal cases
Briefly stated the case of the petitioners is that petitioner No 1 had the misfortune to incur the wrath of the Chief Minister of the State
It is alleged that the Chief Minister was annoyed with petitioner No 1 because the latter did not show his readiness to give evidence for the prosecution in a case known as the Karnal Murder Case later referred to as the Grewal case in which one D section Grewal then Superintendent of Police Karnal and some other police officials were along with others accused of some serious offences
That case was transferred by this Court to a Special 145 Judge at Delhi who commenced the trial sometime in MayJune 1959
Petitioner No 1 was at the time Com missioner of Ambala and he alleges that he was told by the Chief Minister that it was proposed to cite the Deputy Commissioner and the Deputy Inspector General of Police as prosecution witnesses in the said case and it would be in the fitness of things that petitioner No 1 should also figure as a prosecution witness to this suggestion petitioner No 1 gave a somewhat dubious reply to the effect that his appearance as a prosecution witness might or might not help the prosecution
Another reason for the displeasure of the Chief Minister as alleged in the petition related to certain orders which petitioner No 1 had passed as Commissioner Patiala Division in a revenue case known as the Sangrur case
We shall presently give more details of that case but it is enough to state here that the allegation is that in that case petitioner No 1 passed certain orders involving the disposal of properties worth about Rs 9 lacs which were adverse to one Surinder Kairon son of the Chief Minister
It is stated that as a result of the displeasure which petitioner No 1 bad incurred for the two reasons mentioned above a special procedure was adopted in the investigation of the criminal cases instituted against the petitioners and some new cases were started through the instrumentality of the C 1
D Police with a view to subject the petitioners to harassment and persecution
The substantial allegation to quote the language of the petition is that  a special procedure or rather a technique has been devised for circumventing the mandatory provisions of the law meaning the Code of Criminal Procedure as regards the petitioners two of whom are ladies and who are being dragged about unnecessarily because they happen to be related to petitioner No 1
It is stated that there has been a deliberate departure from the normal and legal procedure in the matter of institution and investigation of criminal cases against the petitioners a departure said to be the result of  an evil eye and unequal hand  which the petitioners allege constitutes 146 a denial of the right of equal protection of the laws guaranteed to them under article 14 of the Constitution
The special procedure or technique of which the petitioners complain is said to consist of several items such as 1 entertainment of a criminal complaint personally by the Chief Minister 2 institution of complaints by the C 1 D police 3 registration of first informations after such complaints  4 investigations in advance of the complaints 5 investigation by specially chosen hand picked as learned Counsel for the petitioners has suggested CID officials not necessarily of high rank who have no power to investigate 6 the arrangement of a special CID squad to  unearth something  against the petitioners etc
In the petition four criminal cases were referred to as illustrative of the special procedure said to be unwarranted by law adopted against the petitioners and in a supplementary petition filed on June 9 1960 some more cases were referred to
After we had conveyed to learned Counsel for the petitioners that we could not consider the supplementary petition which the respondent had no opportunity of meeting the supplementary petition was withdrawn
Therefore we do not propose to say anything about the cases which are referred to in the supplementary petition
The four cases mentioned in the original petition are  1 FIR No 304 of 1958 given by one M L Sethi referred to hereinafter for brevity as Sethi s case  2 FIR No 39 of 1959 instituted on the complaint of one M L Dhingra called hereinafter as Dhingra s case 3 FIR No 135 of 1959 instituted on the complaint of the Civil Supply Officer Karnal the accused in this case being the State Orphanage Advisory Board of which petitioner No I was Vice President at the relevant time and Kartar Singh farm manager of Kaushalya Devi called the Orphanage case and 4 FIR No 26 of 1960 instituted on the complaint of Daryao Sing DSP CID Karnal one of the respondent police officials in which there are three 147 accused persons including petitioner No 1 called for brevity the Ayurvedic Fund case
We may say at once that we are not concerned with the merits of any of the aforesaid cases  that is a question which will fall for consideration if and when the cases are tried in Court
Therefore nothing said in this judgment shall be construed as affecting the merits of the cases
Two questions have been posed before us in relation to these cases one is if in the matter of institution and investigation of these cases a special procedure unknown to law has been adopted and the other is if the petitioners have been singled out for unequal treatment in administering the law relating to the institution and investigation of criminal cases in the State
The two questions are in one sense connected for if a special procedure unknown to law has been adopted against the petitioners that by itself will be a denial of the right of the equal protection of the laws
Learned Counsel for the petitioners has however argued the second question somewhat independently of the first question and he has submitted that even if the procedure adopted against the petitioners is warranted by law it is a departure from the normal procedure and has been adopted with  an evil eye and unequal hand  so as to put the petitioners to harassment and persecution
We shall consider both these questions in relation to the procedure adopted in the four cases referred to above
It is necessary to state that the petition has been contested by the respondents
The Chief Minister has himself made no affidavit in respect of the allegations made against him  but affidavits in reply have been made by the Chief Secretary and the Home Secretary to the Punjab Government and some of the respondent officials
To these affidavits we shall advert later in somewhat greater detail
We shall also have something to say about the failure of the Chief Minister to make an affidavit
It is enough to state here that the respondents have seriously contested both the allegations made on behalf of the petitioners namely 1 that a special procedure unknown to law was 148 adopted against them or 2 that the procedure adopted was motivated by  an evil eye and unequal hand  so as to persecute and harass the petitioners
The respondents have said that the procedure adopted was warranted by law and the employment of the C 1
D officials in the investigation of the cases against the petitioners was due to the special nature of the cases
The respondents have also contested the correctness of the allegation that petitioner No 1 had incurred the displeasure of the Chief Minister on account of the two reasons stated in the petition
In brief the claim of the respondents is that there has been no violation of the rights of the petitioners guaranteed under articles 14 and 21 and there are no grounds for interference by this Court under article 32 of the Constitution
It has been stated on behalf of the respondents that in the two cases called Setbi s case and Dhingra s case the petitioners had moved the High Court without success for quashing the proceedings and in Sethi s case an appeal to this Court against the order of the High Court also proved unsuccessful
It is also pointed out that a petition made by petitioner No 1 in the High Court for proceeding by way of contempt of court against the Chief Minister on some of the allegations now raised or allegations similar in nature was dismissed in limine and the learned Advocate General of the Punjab has taken us through the order of the High Court in respect of some of the allegations made
Having stated the respective cases of the parties before us we shall proceed now to a more detailed examination of the procedure adopted in the four cases instituted against the petitioners
But before we do so it is necessary to say a few words about Grewal s case and Sangrur case which are stated to furnish the reasons why petitioner No 1 incurred the displeasure of the Chief Minister
It is alleged that in Grewal s case petitioner No 1 was asked to give evidence for the prosecution but he gave a dubious reply which displeased the Chief Minister
It is worthy of note however that the trial in Grewal s case began in May June 1959 Sethi s complaint was made in 149 December 1958 and Dhingra s in February 1959
Obviously those two cases could not be the result of any refusal by petitioner No 1 to give evidence in Grewal s case
On May 28 1959 petitioner No 1 wrote to the Chief Secretary about Sethi s case and Dhingra s case but no allegation was made therein against the Chief Minister
What the petitioner wanted then was that an opportunity should be given to him to explain his position
On June 9 1959 petitioner No 1 again wrote to the Chief Secretary about the complaints of Sethi and Dhingra again there was no allegation against the Chief Minister
On June 29 1959 petitioner No 1 filed two petitions in the Punjab High Court for quashing the proceedings in Sethi s case and Dhingra s case in this petition an allegation was made that powerful influences were operating against the petitioner  to harm him and debar him officially  and Sethi s case and Dhingra s case were the result of such influences but there was no specific mention of Grewal s case and of any request to the petitioner to give evidence in that case
It was for the first time on July 20 1959 when the petition for contempt proceedings was filed that a specific allegation against the Chief Minister was made in paragraphs 35 to 37 thereof this is annexure 1 to the present petition
This petition was dismissed in limine the High Court saying that it was not prima facie satisfied that the allegation was made out
We do not think that petitioner No 1 has been able to advance his case any further in spite of the fact that the Chief Minister has made no affidavit a matter to which we shall advert later
As to the Sangrur case that was also referred to in the petition of July 20 1959 and the High Court did not accept the allegation of petitioner No 1
What happened in that case was this
The late Sardar Mukan Sing of Sangrur left two widows Sardarni Pritam Kuar and Sardarni Pavitar Kaur Sardarni Pavitar Kaur had three daughters one of whom was married to Surinder Singh Kairon son of the Chief Minister
The Sangrur estate was in charge of the Court of Wards that is the Financial Commissioner Punjab
On June 150 19 1958 the Court of Wards decided to release the estate after partitioning the immovable property between the two widows
At one time a question arose as to whether the immovable properties should be partitioned into five equal shares for the two widows and three daughters or into two shares only for the two widows
Sometime before May 6 1959 it was decided that the partition would be of two shares only and thereafter a detailed mode of partition was agreed to between the parties
This is clear from the note of petitioner No 1 dated May 6 1959
Thereafter there was no more dispute left and the case of petitioner no1 that he was arrested on July 18 1959 because he dictated an adverse order some days previously which had been typed but not yet signed does not prima facie appear to be correct apart altogether from the question whether petitioner No 1 was acting merely as the channel between the Deputy Commissioner and the Financial Commissioner the latter being the only authority competent to pass final orders in the matter
We have therefore come to the conclusion that the petitioners have not established what they have alleged namely that R P Kapur one of the petitioners had incurred the displeasure of the Chief Minister by reason of what happened in the Grewal case and the Sangrur case
Whether there were other reasons administrative or otherwise for the displeasure of the Chief Minister is a matter which is not germane to the present case
In the affidavits filed before us some reference has been made to the past record of R P Kapur
We consider it unnecessary to refer to that record  firstly  because it is not rele vant to the case before us and secondly because we think that it is not fair to refer to the confidential record of an officer unless the circumstances in which certain adverse remarks were made are known
We proceed now to consider the four criminal cases pending against the petitioners or some of them in relation to the two points urged 1 whether in the institution and investigation of these cases a special procedure unknown to law has been adopted and 2 151 if the petitioners have been singled out for unequal treatment in administering the law relating to the institution and investigation of criminal cases in the State
The first two cases namely Sethi s case and Dhingra s case need be dealt with at some length
Sethi s case started on a complaint which it was said was sent direct to the Chief Minister
Four material allegations about fraudulent misrepresentation were made in that complaint
It was alleged that R P Kapur had fraudulently misrepresented to Sethi that a particular piece of land which he had sold to Sethi had been purchased by him at Rs 10 per square yard that he had fraudulently concealed from Sethi the pendency of certain proceedings before the Land Acquisition Collector Delhi and of the acquisition of the said land under section 17 of the relevant Act that he had made a fraudulent misrepresentation as regards the scheme of housing with regard to the area in which the land lay
Though the complaint was dated December 10 1958 it appears to have been made over to the Additional Inspector General of Police on December 23 1958
The Additional Inspector General of Police then appears to have passed an order to the following effect  Register a case and investigate personally 
This was addressed to Sardar Hardayal Singh D section P Thereupon Sardar Hardayal Singh Deputy Superintendent of Police CID Amritsar appears to have drawn up a first information report
The original complaint which Sethi filed has not been produced before us
What was produced before us was a carbon copy and on that carbon copy was the order of the Additional Inspector General of Police to which we have already made a reference
The allegation of the petitioners was that the original complaint had been sent to the Chief Minister and the Chief Minister had passed certain orders thereon
On behalf of the petitioners it was suggested that the original was not produced in order to conceal from the Court the orders which the Chief Minister had passed thereon
We have stated earlier that the Chief Minister had filed no affidavit in respect of these allegations
An affidavit has been filed by AN Home Secretary 152 to the Government but obviously he was not in a position to say anything about the allegations made against the Chief Minister
We therefore proceed on the basis that so far as Sethi s case is concerned a complaint was made or sent to the Chief Minister who thereupon sent it to the Additional Inspector General of Police who in his turn sent it to Sardar Hardayal Singh Deputy Superintendent of Police C I D at Amritsar
The short question before us is does this amount to adopting a procedure unknown to law or even to unequal treatment so as to attract article 14 of the Constitution  Learned Counsel for the petitioners has taken us through the relevant provisions in Part V Chapter XIV of the Code of Criminal Procedure and has submitted that under section 154 of the Code every information relating to the commission of a cognizable offence should be given to an officer in charge of a police station and under section 156 any officer in charge of a police station may without the order of a Magistrate investigate any cognizable case which a Court having jurisdiction over the local area would have power to inquire into or try under the provisions of Chapter XV relating to the place of inquiry or trial
He has also referred to section 157 under which the officer in charge of a police station shall forthwith send a report of the first information to a Magistrate empowered to take cognizance of the offence and shall proceed in person or shall depute one of his subordinate officers not being below such rank as the State Government may by general or special order prescribe in this behalf to proceed to the spot to investigate the facts and circumstances of the case and if necessary to take measures for the discovery and arrest of the offender
It is contended that the provisions of sections 154 156 and 157 of the Code have been violated in the case against the petitioners and thus the petitioners have been subjected to a special procedure unknown to law or at any rate to unequal treatment treatment different from that of other persons against whom informations of a cognizable offence ape made
We are unable to accept these contentions as 153 correct
First of all section 154 Code of Criminal Procedure does not say that an information of a cognizable offence can only be made to an officer in charge of a police station
That section merely lays down inter alia that every information relating to the commission of a cognizable offence if given orally to an officer in charge of a police station shall be reduced to writing by him or under his direction and be read over to the informant and every such information shall be signed by the person giving it and the substance thereof shall be entered in a book to be kept by such officer in such form as the State Government may prescribe in that behalf
Section 156 gives power to an officer in charge of a police station to investigate without the order of a Magistrate any cognizable case which a Court having jurisdiction in the local area etc
would have power to inquire into or try sub section
2 of section 156 lays down that no proceeding of a police officer in any such case shall at any stage be called in question on the ground that the case was one which such officer was not empowered under this section to investigate
There has been some argument before us as to the meaning of the expression  any such case  occurring in sub section
2 of section 156
As we are not resting our decision on sub section
2 of section 156 Code of Criminal Procedure we consider it unnecessary to embark upon a discussion as to the true scope and effect of sub section
2 of section 156
Section 157 of the Criminal Procedure Code lays down the procedure which an officer in charge of a police station must follow where information of a cognizable offence is made
Now there is another important provision in the Code which is of great relevance in this case and must be read
That provision is contained in section 551 which is in these terms  section 551
Police officers superior in rank to an officer in charge of a police station may exercise the same powers throughout the local area to which they are appointed as may be exercised by such officer within the limits of his station
 The Additional Inspector General of Police to whom 20 154 Sethi s complaint was sent was without doubt a police officer superior in rank to an officer in charge of a police station
Sardar Hardayal Singh Deputy Superintendent of Police CID Amritsar was also an officer superior in rank to an officer in charge of a police station
Both these officers could therefore exercise the powers throughout the local area to which they were appointed as might be exercised by an officer in charge of a police station within the limits of his police station
It is not disputed that the jurisdictional area of the Additional Inspector General of Police was the whole of the State
As to the jurisdictional area of the Deputy Superintendent of Police CID the contention on behalf of the respondent State is that though he was posted at Amritsar his jurisdictional area extended over the whole State
The learned Advocate General for the respondent State has drawn our attention to Police Rule 2128 in the Punjab Police Rules 1934 Vol
III issued by and with the authority of the State Government under sections 7 and 12 of the Police Act V of 1861
That rule lays down that the Criminal Investigation Department has no separate jurisdiction and the Deputy Inspector General of Police Criminal Investi gation Department may decide to take over the control of any particular investigation himself or depute one or more of his officers to work directly under the control of the Superintendent of Police of the district
Police Rule 2132 enumerates some of the cases in which the assistance of the Criminal Investigation Department may be sought
Police Rule 2514 says that the Criminal Investigation Department is able to obtain expert technical assistance and in cases where such assistance is required the assistance of the Criminal Investigation Department may be obtained
In the affidavit made by Sardar Hardayal Singh he has stated that he was entrusted with the investigation of Sethi s case because of its technical nature and also because his sphere of duty as a Gazetted Officer attached to the Criminal Investigation Department was the whole of the State in view of the memorandum No 9581 H 517912 dated October 155 26 1951
That memorandum shows that the Deputy Inspector General CID and all gazetted officers of the Criminal Investigation Department have jurisdiction extending over the whole of the Punjab State
This is also supported by the affidavit made by Shamshere Singh Additional Inspector General of Police
Learned Counsel for the petitioners has pointed out that Sethi s case involved no technical questions and the ground stated in the affidavits of Shamshere Singh and Sardar Hardayal Singh is not therefore correct
The question before us is not whether the reason for which the investigation was made over to Sardar Hardayal Singh is correct or not
The question before us is whether in making over the investigation to Sardar Hardayal Singh a special procedure unknown to law was adopted or the law as to the investigation of cases was administered with an evil eye or unequal hand
If the police officer concerned thought that the case should be investigated by the C 1
D even though for a reason which does not appeal to us it cannot be said that the procedure adopted was illegal
We are unable to agree with learned Counsel for the petitioners that any of these two contentions has been made out in the present case
We are satisfied that the Inspector General of Police CID had power to deal with Sethi s complaint and had further power to direct investigation of the same by Sardar Hardayal Singh who as a police officer superior in rank to an officer incharge of a police station could exercise powers of an officer in charge of a police station in respect of the same
It cannot therefore be said that the procedure adopted was unknown to law
Nor are we satisfied that the procedure adopted was motivated by any evil purpose though we are not quite impressed by the reason given by Shamshere Singh or Sardar Hardayal Singh that Sethi s case was of a technical nature and therefore required the assistance of the CID
Even if it was not of a technical nature it was open to the Additional Inspector General of Police to make over the investigation to a Deputy Superintendent of Police in view of the status of the petitioners
In paragraph 31 of his affidavit 156 A N Kashyap Home Secretary has said that the Inspector General of Police on receiving the complaint from Sethi ordered on his own the registration of the case without any order or direction from the Chief Minister
The correctness of this statement has been very seriously commented on
In the absence of any affidavit from the Chief Minister and of the original complaint we have preferred to proceed in this case on the footing that the Additional Inspector General of Police got the complaint from the Chief Minister and then passed necessary orders thereon
Even on that footing we are unable to hold that there has been any violation of legal procedure or that an unfair discrimination has been made against the petitioners
Learned Counsel for the petitioners has relied on certain observations made by this Court in H N Rishbud and Inder Singh vs The State of Delhi 1
The observations occur at page 1160 of the report and are to the effect that it is of considerable importance to an accused person that the evidence collected against him during investigation is collected under the responsibility of an authorised and competent investigating officer
These observations were Made in a case where the question that fell for decision was whether the provisions in section 54 and the proviso to section 3 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1947 Act II of 1947 and the corresponding section 5A of the Prevention of Corruption Second Amendent Act 1952 Act LIX of 1952 were mandatory or not
It was held that they were mandatory and an investigation conducted in violation thereof was illegal
It was also held that an illegality committed in the course of an investigation did not affect the competence and jurisdiction of the Court for trial but if any breach of the mandatory pro visions relating to investigation were brought to the notice of the Court at an early stage of the trial the Court would have to consider the nature and extent of the violation and pass appropriate orders for such re investigation as might be called for
We do not think that the observations made and the decision are of any 1  157 assistance to the petitioners
We have held that there has been no violation of any mandatory provisions as to investigation in Sethi s case against the petitioners and the investigation procedure followed is legal
Our attention has been drawn to King Emperor vs Nilkantha 1
On a certificate by the Advocate General the case was considered by a Full Bench of the Madras High Court and one of the questions for decision was  Is an Inspector of the Criminal Investigation Department an authority legally competent to investigate the facts within the meaning of section 157 Evidence Act   The question was answered in the affirmative by the majority of judges Abdur Rahim J and Sundara Ayyar J dissenting
In the course of the arguments before their Lordships one of the questions mooted was whether Inspectors of the Criminal Investigation Department were appointed to any local area within the purview of section 551 Code of Criminal Procedure
Some of the Judges held that the whole Presidency was their local area some held that that was not so
On the materials before us we have no hesitation in holding that the Deputy Superintendent of Police entrusted with the investigation of Sethi s case bad the necessary authority to hold the investigation
The decision in Pulin Bihari Ghosh vs The King1 on which also some reliance has been placed does not appear to us to be in point that was a case section 202 and section 1563 Code of Criminal Procedure and it was held that proceedings under section 202 and investigation under rb
1563 could not proceed simultaneously it was further held that a direction under section 1563 could only be made to an officer in charge of a police station
No question arose there of the exercise of powers under section 551 Code of Criminal Pro cedure and the decision does not establish what the petitioners are seeking to establish in the present case
More in point is the decision in Textile Traders Syndicate Ltd vs State of U P 3 where it was held that an Inspector of Police in the Criminal Investigation Department was superior in rank to that of an 1 ILR 2 ILR 3 AIR 1959 All
158 officer in charge of a police station and under section 551 Code of Criminal Procedure he could exercise the powers of an officer in charge of a police station throughout the State
Turning now to Dhingra s case the position is this
Admittedly a complaint dated February 27 1959 was sent to the Chief Minister with a covering letter in which it was stated that  R P Kapur had already started tampering with the evidence and 1 therefore request that orders be passed that the Police should take in hand investigation immediately and collect all material evidence 
The Chief Minister wrote on this  Inspector General Police is sick
Will Add1
Inspector General please take immediate action in taking over papers from Government departments concerned and the papers with Sri Dhingra
Please give a prima facie report
 The Additional Inspector General then made the following endorsement  Please take immediate necessary action
Depute one of your officers to contact Sri Dhingra and get the necessary records from him
Immediate action may be taken to take over the record from the various departments
A case may be registered
I have informed Chief Secretary and he agrees with this
 This was addressed to the Deputy Inspector General CID and the latter wrote  Case should be regis
tered and investigated by Bir Singh DSP under your supervision
Immediate steps should be taken to get the salient records of Sri Dhingra
 This was addressed to Ujager Singh Superintendent of Police CID The case was then registered by Sardar Sampuran Singh Inspector of Police Police Station Chandigarh and the investigation was in charge of Sardar Bir Singh Deputy Superintendent of Police CID The legal position as to the institution of Dhingra s case and its investigation is the same as in Sethi s case
The legal sanction for both is section 551 Code of Criminal Procedure and the reasons which we have given for holding that the procedure followed in instituting and investigating Sethi s case is legally valid apply to Dhingra s case also
On behalf of the 159 petitioners it has been submitted that the hand of the Chief Minister is no longer concealed in respect of Dhingra s case
It is pointed out that in 1959 a complaint is made in respect of offences alleged to have been committed about five years ago in 1954 and the Chief Minister without any enquiry whatsoever says  Please give a prima facie report  and the same CID machinery is again set in rapid motion as in Sethi s case and this at a time when Sethi s case was kept  hanging as a sword  over the petitioners
It has been further submitted that the direction as to the seizure of papers was not justified in law as the Chief Minister had no legal power to give such a direc
We do not think that these submissions establish what the petitioners have to establish in order to succeed on their writ petition namely that in the institution of Dhingra s case and its investigation a procedure unknown to law has been followed or that the petitioners have been singled out for an unfair and discriminating treatment
We do not know what reasons led the Chief Minister to make the endorsement on the complaint of Dhingra as he did and why instead of referring the complaint to the officer in charge of the police station concerned a reference was made to the Additional Inspector General or the Criminal Investigation Department
These are matters within his special knowledge and he has chosen to throw no light on them
Shamshere Singh has said in his affidavit that he dealt with Dhingra s case in exercise of his powers under section 551 Code of Criminal Procedure
Sardar Bir Singh has said in his affidavit that this case was also of a technical nature and so the investigation was entrusted to him
As we have said in Sethi s case this reason does not appear to us to be a convincing reason but the Police officers concerned may honestly have thought that the case should be investigated by the Criminal Investigation Department
We are not called upon to express any opinion on the merits of Dhingra s case and all that we say now is that the petitioners have failed to establish either of their two contentions 1 that the procedure adopted was illegal or 2 that the petitioners were unfairly discriminated against
160 We go now to the remaining two cases the Orphanage Case and the Ayurvedic Fund case
One was instituted on the complaint of the Civil Supply Officer Karnal and the other on the statement of Daryao Sing Deputy Superintendent of Police C 1 D Karnal
The Orphanage case is against the Orphanage Advisory Board of which R P Kapur was the Vice President at the relevant time and Kartar Sing farm manager of Kaushalya Devi
It related to the alleged violation of certain Control Orders in the matter of a brick kiln
The Ayurvedic Fund case is against R P Kapur and certain other persons who are not petitioners before us
It alleged criminal breach of trust etc
in respect of certain funds in the hands of the persons accused therein
As we are not deciding these cases on merits it is unnecessary to give further details of the allegations made in those cases
No specific illegality has been brought to our notice with regard to the institution of the Orphanage case except some allegations of high handedness in the matter of seizure of records of the Orphanage in spite of the protest of the General Manager of the Orphanage and some allegations against Choudhuri Ram Singh who was then Deputy Inspector General Ambala Range
These allegations be they true or not do not establish any such illegality as would lead us to quash the investigation
As to the Ayurvedic Fund case Daryao Sing said in his affidavit  I say that the Audit Report contained details of meddling with Orphanage funds and of having made payments to one Kartar Sing an employee of the petitioner no1 and the attorney of Shrimati Kaushalya Devi
It appears that there was excess and double payment of funds
There were purchases of timber and wood without calling for any quotations
It disclosed the issue of Orphanage funds to Madhuban Co operative Society and that the materials like cement iron and steel which were under control were also used in the construction of private building of Shri Kapur and his family and the use of such materials went up to 20000 Rupees
 161 Here again we do not express any opinion as to the correctness or otherwise of the allegations made
All that need be said at this stage is that the institution of the case is not illegal nor is its investigation vitiated by discrimination
It is indeed true that the investigation of these cases has been entrusted to certain officers of the Criminal Investigation Department whether for good reason or not we cannot say
But that circumstance does not by itself make the investigation bad in law
The officers can exercise their powers of investigation under section 551 Code of Criminal Procedure
Daryao Singh it may be stated was an Inspector of the Criminal Investigation Department at Karnal and became a Deputy Superintendent of Police C I D in December 1959
He also could exercise the powers under section 551 Code of Criminal Procedure
For the reasons given above we have come to the conclusion that the petitioners are not entitled to succeed and the writ petition must be dismissed in the circumstances of this case there will be no order for costs
Before parting with this case we consider it necessary to make some observations with regard to a matter which has caused us some anxiety and concern
Serious allegations have been made against the Chief Minister in this case
He is a party respondent and had notice of the allegations made
In Sethi s complaint it was alleged that he had passed certain orders on the original complaint which was sent to the Additional Inspector General of Police with those orders
The original complaint was not made available to us on the ground that it could not be traced
The Additional Inspector General of Police said in his affidavit that on receiving the complaint from Sri M L Sethi he ordered the investigation of the case without any order or direction from the Chief Minister
He did not specifically say if he received the complaint direct from Sethi or through the Chief Minister
In Dhingra s case the Chief Minister passed an order which might either mean that he ordered the 21 162 submission of a prima facie report or merely directed that a report should be submitted if a prima facie case was made out
It is not clear why he ordered the seizure of papers before even a prima facie report was given in respect of an offence said to have been committed five years ago
These are all matters on which the Chief Minister alone was in a position to enlighten us
In view of the allegations made against him we consider that the Chief Minister owed a duty to this Court to file an affidavit stating what the correct position was so far as he remembered it
We recognise that it may not be possible for a Chief Minister to remember the circumstances in which a document pass through his hands there must be many papers which a Chief Minister has to deal with in the day to day business of administration
If the Chief Minister did not remember the circumstances it would have been easy for him to say so
If he remembered the circumstances he could have refuted the allegations with equal ease
This is not a case where the refutation should have been left to Secretaries and other officers who could only speak from the records and were not in a position to say why the Chief Minister passed certain orders
The petitioners are obviously suffering from a sense of grievance that they have not had a fair deal
We have held that there is no legal justification for that grievance  but in an executive as well as judicial administration justice must not only be done but it must appear that justice is being done
An affidavit from the Chief Minister would have cleared much of the doubt which in the absence of such an affidavit arose in this case
Petition dismissed


Summary:
The appellants who were manufacturers of cigarettes and tobacco in the State of Bihar contested the levy of sales tax on sales effected by them during the financial years 1949 5o and 1950 51 on the ground that as a direct result of every sale effected by them the goods concerned were delivered outside the State of Bihar and were therefore exempted from tax liability under article 286ia of the Constitution
Both the Superintendent of sales tax and the Deputy Commissioner of sales tax Bihar overruled the objection of the appellants and following a previous ruling of the Board of Revenue of Bengal in a case known as the Bengal Timber Case 61 of 1952 held the appellants liable to pay the tax
The appellants paid the tax demanded but filed an application in revision to the Board of Revenue claiming a constitutional exemption from tax on every sale effected by them as a result of which goods were delivered outside the State of Bihar whether the delivery was for consumption in the State of first delivery or not
The Board passed the following order on the revision petition
 As regards the admitted despatches of the goods outside the State after the 26th January 1950 when the Constitution came into force the learned lower court has been guided by the decision of the Board in the Bengal Timber Case No 61 of 1952
But this ruling of the Board stands superseded by the subsequent decision of the Supreme Court in the United Motors Case According to the decision of the Supreme Court no tax could be levied on despatches to the places outside the state after the 26th January 1950 and on this point the petitions are allowed and the sales tax officer directed to recalculate the amount of tax payable by the assessee 
The appellants taking the above order to be in their favour claimed refund of the tax already paid by them and the sales tax authorities contested the position and claimed that they were bound to refund the tax only on those sales wherein the goods were delivered outside the State for consumption in the State of first delivery
The department thereafter sought clarification of the above order
The Board refused to clarify or explain its order and passed an order saying that  no further clarification was really required in view of the specific reference to the judgment of the Supreme Court in the United Motors Case 
Thereafter as the authorities still refused to refund the balance of the tax the appellants filed two applications in the High Court for the issue of a writ of mandamus to compel the refund
The High Court held that the Board s decision that sales in which the goods were delivered outside the State for consumption not in the State of first delivery but in other States were also exempted from tax was wrong and that the appellants were not entitled to a writ of mandamus for enforcing a wrong order
On appeal by special leave Held that the proper construction of the Board s orders was that the sales tax officer was directed to decide the relief that 108 should be given to the assessee on the officers  interpretation of the decision of this Court in the United Motors Case
The Board did not determine the effect of that judgment and did not decide that every sale in which the goods were delivered outside the State of Bihar was exempted from liability to tax
The principle that a subordinate tribunal should not refuse to carry out the directions of a superior tribunal was therefore not applicable to the instant case
Bhopal Sugar Mills vs Commissioner of Income tax 1961 1 SCR 474 held inapplicable
The United Motors Case merely decided that sales in which goods were delivered outside the State for consumption in the State of first delivery would fall under the Explanation to article 2861 of the Constitution and would therefore be exempted from tax liability but it did not deal with other sales in which the goods thus delivered were for consumption not in the State of first delivery but in other states
Such sales would on the order of the Board of Revenue which was binding on the appellant be liable to tax in accordance with the previous decision of the Board of Revenue in the Bengal Timber Case
State of Bombay vs United Motors India Ltd and Ors   explained and applied
Board of Revenue of the State in the Bengal Timber Case 61 of 1952 referred to