Rajiv Ranjan Singh 'Lalan' & Anr vs Union Of India & Ors

PLEADINGS On 31.08.2004 the present Writ Petition (Crl.) Nos.197-198 of 2004 were filed for enforcement of Article 14 of the Constitution. Briefly, it is alleged that the Union of India (respondent no.1) and other respondents (including respondent nos.4 and 5) are allegedly committing acts of misfeasance in relation to the corruption cases pending before the Special Judge, CBI, Patna as well as in the appeals preferred by the accused before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal. Respondent no.4 is Smt. Rabri Devi, former Chief Minister of Bihar and respondent no.5 is Mr. Lalu Prasad, former Chief Minister of Bihar. In the writ petitions it is alleged that trial judge as well as the Member (Judicial) of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal who are found to be inconvenient are being transferred and supplanted with the chosen ones. That, even the judgment of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (for short, 'the Tribunal') allowing the appeal in favour of the assessees for the assessment years 1986-87 to 1996-97, though involving substantial questions of law, has not been challenged by the Revenue by filing appeals under Section 260A of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (for short, 'the I.T. Act') in order to protect some of the respondents-accused.

Because of this, the judgment of the Court of Appeal, against which appeal to your Lordships' House is brought, takes the form of an interlocutory judgment declaring that the federation "have a sufficient interest to apply for judicial review herein."

One more aspect needs to be stressed. There is a prescribed form in which the C.Rs are recorded. That form indicates various parameters, namely, knowledge of law, whether the officer is hardworking, the rating to be given in respect of the judgments, namely, A+(outstanding), A(very good), B+(good), B(satisfactory). The point to be noted is that apart from honesty and integrity there are other parameters to be fulfilled by the judicial officers and that is where the disposals, ability and all other relevant factors come.

It is important to bear in mind that in the matter of economic scams be it security transactions or fodder scams or Taj corridor it is the economic interest of the country which is at stake. These cases are highly complicated in which complicated questions are involved and, therefore, posting plays a vital role.

Before concluding it may be pointed out that this decision is confined strictly to the decision- making process and it is not concerned with the merits of the allegations made in the petitions. The allegations made in the petitions are not only against the accused, they are also directed against number of functionaries. It is, therefore, made clear that this decision is only to rectify the procedure of decision-making at the High Court level and at the Revenue level so that in future such anomalies do not arise.

To sum up, the Chief Justice of the Patna High Court is requested to convene a meeting of Administrative Judges and have a fresh look at the evaluation in the case of posting of Sri Paswan as Special Judge for C.B.I. (Fodder Scam Cases) at Patna, vide Minutes of Meeting dated 22.06.2005. At the same time, Union of India is directed to reconsider approaching the High Court against the decision of the Tribunal dated 2.7.2004 under Section 260A of the Income Tax Act, 1961 in the light of what is stated above.

Writ Petition (Crl.) Nos.197-198 of 2004 are accordingly allowed to the extent indicated above.