Abhay Singh Chautala vs C.B.I

2. Leave granted in both the Special Leave Petitions.

4. Separate charge sheets were filed against both the appellants for the aforementioned offences by the CBI. It was alleged that both the accused while working as the Members of Legislative Assembly had accumulated wealth disproportionate to their known sources of income. The charges were filed on the basis of the investigations conducted by the CBI. This was necessitated on account of this Court's order in Writ Petition (Crl.) No.93 of 2003 directing the CBI to investigate the JBT Teachers Recruitment Scam. The offences were registered on 24.5.2004. The CBI conducted searches and seized incriminating documents which revealed that Shri Om Prakash Chautala and his family had acquired movable and immovable properties valued at Rs.1,467 crores. On this basis a Notification came to be issued on 22.2.2006 under Sections 5 and 6 of the DSPE Act with the consent of the Government of Haryana extending powers and jurisdiction under the DSPE Act to the State of Haryana for investigation of allegations regarding accumulation of disproportionate assets by Shri Om Prakash Chautala and his family members under the Prevention of Corruption Act. A regular First Information Report then came to be registered against Shri Om Prakash Chautala who is the father of both the appellants. It is found that in the check period of 7.6.2000 to 8.3.2005, appellant Abhay Singh Chautala had amassed wealth worth Rs.1,19,69,82,619/- which was 522.79 % of appellant Abhay Singh Chautala's known sources of income. During the check period, Shri 3 Abhay Singh Chautala was the Member of the Legislative Assembly Haryana, Rori Constituency. Similarly, in case of Ajay Singh Chautala, his check period was taken as 24.5.1993 to 31.5.2006 during which he held the following offices:-

12. Shri Mukul Rohtagi and Shri U.U. Lalit, learned senior counsel appearing on behalf of the appellants, have no quarrel with the proposition that in all the above cases, it is specifically held that where the alleged misconduct is in some different capacity than the one which is held at the time of taking cognizance, there will be no necessity to take the sanction.

Indisputably, the accused had ceased to hold that office as public servant which he was alleged to have misused or abused. The court was however, not invited to consider the contention canvassed before us: Nor was the court informed specifically whether the subsequent office held by the accused in that case was the same from which his service was terminated meaning thereby he was re-employed to the same office. The decision appears to proceed on the facts of the case. We would however, like to make it abundantly clear that if the two decisions purport to lay down that even if a public servant has ceased to hold that office as public servant which he is alleged to have abused or misused for corrupt motives, but on the date of taking cognizance of an offence alleged to have been committed by him as a public servant which he ceased to be and holds an entirely different public office which he is neither alleged to have misused or abused for corrupt motives, yet the sanction of authority competent to remove him from such latter office would be necessary before taking cognizance of the offence alleged to have been committed by the public servant while holding an office which he is alleged to have abused or misused and which he has ceased to hold, the decisions in our opinion, do not lay down the correct law and cannot be accepted as making a correct interpretation of Section 6.

(emphasis supplied)

July 4, 2011.