Case: THE STATE OF KARNATAKA Vs. M/S VEDANATA LIMITED (FORMERLY KNOWN AS SESA STERLITE LIMITED)

15.12.2015. On 15.12.2015, the Court in Crime No. 2/2014 passed the following order: “Complainant by name Sri Manjunatha Annigeri, Superintendent of police attached Special Investigation Team, Karnataka Lokayuktha, Bengaluru is present and submits that he has gone through the records which disclosed that no case is made out against all the accused at the conclusion of investigation. He submits that he has no objection to accept the ‘B’ report. I have gone through the records. It is seen that according to the Investigating Officer, there is no convincing evidence to arrive at conclusion that allegations against all the accused are made out. After having gone through the ‘B’ report I find that there are no grounds to proceed further against all the accused and accordingly ‘B’ report is accepted. (V. G. BOPAIAH) XXIII ACC and Spl. Judge, Bangalore City.” 16. From the above, it is clear that the final Report which was accepted on 15.12.2015, was final report in case Crime No. 2/2014 which was registered after the investigation by SIT in pursuance of order of this Court passed in Writ Petition No. 562 of 2009 and in the above case, no offence was found against the respondent. 17. The Order dated 08.05.2015 was passed allowing the application under Section 451/457 Cr.P.C. of the State in Special C.C. No. 268/2013 and C.C. No. 11, 14, 15, 36, 37, 38, 53 & 54 of 2014 which is mentioned in the operative portion of the order itself. It is useful to extract the operative portion of the Order dated 08.05.2015 which is to the following effect: “ ORDER The Application filed by the State Government U/ss. 451/457 of Cr.P.C., are allowed permitting the Applicant/State to dispose off the seized iron ore through e-tender with the following terms and conditions: 1.The auction of the property shall be through e-tender under the supervision of the ‘Monitoring committee’ constituted by the Hon’ble Supreme Court. 2.The e-tender auction shall be conducted by involving the CBI Authorities and under intimation to the Lokayukta Department. 3.The e-tender auction shall be conducted only after measurement of the quality and quantity of each of the 56 iron ore heaps separately through mines and Geology Department. 4.The e-auction shall be conducted after taking samples of each of the 56 iron ore heaps separately for which Panchanama shall be drawn. 5.The e-auction process is over the disposal off the iron ore be covered by videography. 6.The auction amount shall be deposited immediately with the Court in Spl. CC. No. 268/2013 and a copy of the document for having deposited the amount be kept in connected cases. 7.The DMG shall keep records of the exact quantity of iron ore transported by the successful bidder of the property. The Original of the Order be kept in Spl. CC. No. 268/13 and a copy thereof be kept in Spl. CC. Nos. 11/14, 14/14, 15/14, 36/14, 37/14, 38/14, 53/14 & 54/14. (Directed to the Judgment Writer, transcribed by the corrected and then signed and pronounced by me in the open court on this 8 th day of May 2015), Sd/-08/05 (Pradeep S. Balikal) XXXII Addl. City Civil and Sessions Judge and Spl. Judge for CBI Cases, Bangalore” 18. From the above, it is clear that Order dated 08.05.2015 was passed in different proceedings which proceedings commenced by registration of FIR dated 15.03.2010, Ankola Police Station Crime No. 189/2010. After investigation by CID/CBI chargesheets were filed, which were the cases as referred above. Iron ore which was directed to be released by Order dated 08.05.2015 was iron ore seized on 20.03.2010. In the additional documents filed by the appellant, IA filed on behalf of the respondent under Section 451/457 Cr.P.C. dated 08.03.2016 has been brought on record. It is useful to extract the prayer made in the application of the respondent, which is to the following effect: “ PRAYER Wherefore, it is prayed that this Hon’ble Court be pleased to allow the above application and direct the release in favour of the applicant company herein, of about 34,544 MT of Iron Ore belonging to the applicant company that has been seized on 20.03.2010 and is lying at the plot allotted to applicant company by Shree Mallikarjun Shipping Private Limited in Belekeri Port area, in the interest of justice & equity. Place: Bangalore Date 08.03.2016 Applicant [Anand Prakash Dubey, Advocate for Applicant Head-Finance, (K.N. Phanindra)” Iron Ore Karnataka] 19. It is, thus, clear that seizure of the iron ore was not in case Crime No. 2/2014 in which final report has been accepted on 15.12.2015 rather seizure of the iron ore was in different proceeding in which proceeding Order dated 08.05.2015 was passed. When release of iron ore on an application filed by the State under Section 451/457 Cr.P.C. was in different proceeding, there was no effect or consequence of acceptance of the final report vide Order dated 15.12.2015 in case Crime No. 2/2014 and the High Court committed error in allowing the Writ Petition on the strength of the final report accepted on 15.12.2015. We have already extracted the entire consideration of the High Court while allowing the Writ Petition from paragraphs 8 to 15 of the judgment. High Court while allowing the Writ Petition had only relied on acceptance of the final report by CBI Judge dated 15.12.2015 which as has been noted above, was not relevant with regard to Order dated 08.05.2015 passed by the trial court. 20. Learned Senior Counsel for the appellant has also brought on record subsequent judgment of the High Court where High Court in Writ Petition filed against the same Order dated 08.05.2015 by another writ petitioner has disposed off the Writ Petition granting liberty to that Writ Petitioner to approach Jurisdictional Criminal Court for release of the seized iron ore by establishing its existence and ownership rights. Reference has been made to the Order of the Karnataka High Court dated 20.11.2017 in Writ Petition Nos. 29527-29531 of 2017 and Writ Petition Nos. 29881-29884 of 2017 filed as Annexure P-11.

Decision (1 = appeal accepted, 0 = rejected): 1

Explanation:
1[ds]16. From the above, it is clear that the final Report which was accepted on 15.12.2015, was final report in case Crime No. 2/2014 which was registered after the investigation by SIT in pursuance of order of this Court passed in Writ Petition No. 562 of 2009 and in the above case, no offence was found against the respondent.From the above, it is clear that Order dated 08.05.2015 was passed in different proceedings which proceedings commenced by registration of FIR dated 15.03.2010, Ankola Police Station Crime No. 189/2010. After investigation by CID/CBI chargesheets were filed, which were the cases as referred above. Iron ore which was directed to be released by Order dated 08.05.2015 was iron ore seized on 20.03.2010.It is, thus, clear that seizure of the iron ore was not in case Crime No. 2/2014 in which final report has been accepted on 15.12.2015 rather seizure of the iron ore was in different proceeding in which proceeding Order dated 08.05.2015 was passed. When release of iron ore on an application filed by the State under Section 451/457 Cr.P.C. was in different proceeding, there was no effect or consequence of acceptance of the final report vide Order dated 15.12.2015 in case Crimeand the High Court committed error in allowing the Writ Petition on the strength of the final report accepted on 15.12.2015. We have already extracted the entire consideration of the High Court while allowing the Writ Petition from paragraphs 8 to 15 of the judgment. High Court while allowing the Writ Petition had only relied on acceptance of the final report by CBI Judge dated 15.12.2015 which as has been noted above, was not relevant with regard to Order dated 08.05.2015 passed by the trial court.21. In result of foregoing discussion, we are of the view that order and judgment of the High Court is wholly unsustainable