Supreme Court of India Union Of India And Another vs W.N. Chadha on 17 December, 1992 Equivalent citations: AIR1993SC1082, 1993CRILJ859, 1992(3)SCALE396, 1993SUPP(4)SCC260, [1992]SUPP3SCR594, AIR 1993 SUPREME COURT 1082, 1993 AIR SCW 423, (1992) 3 SCR 594 (SC), 1992 JT (SUPP) 255, 1993 (4) SCC(SUPP) 260, 1992 (3) SCR 594, 1993 SCC(CRI) 1171, (1993) 1 ALLCRILR 357, (1993) 1 CURCRIR 1, (1993) 1 CRIMES 308 ORDER S. Ratnavel Pandian, J. 1. The above appeal is preferred before this Court challenging the judgment of the High Court of Delhi dated 2nd September 1992 rendered in Criminal Writ No. 501/91 knocking down the very registration of the First Information Report and all the proceedings arising thereon including the issue of letters rogatory in the second round of the bout of this litigation. 2. The first round of the litigation came before this Court on an appeal preferred by Sh. H.S. Chowdhary challenging the order of the learned Single Judge, Justice M.K. Chawla of the High Court of Delhi dated 19th December, 1990 dismissing his petition on the ground that he has no locus standi to file his petition and a few other appeals preferred by the Union of India and some political parties which had been seriously litigated before this Court on the earlier occasion and resulted in the pronouncement of an order dated 27th August 1991, giving only the conclusions and the final judgment on 28th August 1992 vide Janta Dal v. H.S. Chowdhary the decisions of which were rendered by this Bench. 3. The synoptical resumption of the case of the prosecution leading to the initiation of the proceedings inclusive of the organic synthesis of the events and the circumstances veering the case have been encapsulated and presented in the order and judgment of this Court rendered in the first round of the batch of appeals. Nonetheless, to assimilate the controversial issues both legal and factual involved, we would like to give a terse sketch, shorn of the detailed facts of the case, as borne out from the records, which has given rise to this appeal. 4. The respondent, namely, W.N. Chadha who is now residing at Dubai in United Arab Emirates (UAE) had his first agreement in 1978 with M/s. A.B. Bofors (hereinafter referred to as 'Bofors') to provide representation services to it in India with regard to supply of arms and ammunition to Indian Government. The terms of the said representation services agreement were extended from time to time until the end of 1985. However, in January 1986, Bofors and Anatronic General Corporation Private Ltd. (for short 'AGC') promoted by the respondent entered into a consultancy agreement in 1986 with Bofors in respect of its business in India. According to the respondent, at no stage he or any of his concerns was made agent of BofOrs. Similarly, he or his concern was not entitled to enter into negotiations with Government of India on behalf of Bofors or to commit or to bind Bofors to any agreement or arrangement with the Government of India but as stated supra, he was to render administrative consultancy services to BofOrs. 5. The Ministry of Defence, Government of India approved in August 1980 a proposal forwarded by Army Headquarters recommending, interalia, the introduction of 155 mm calibre medium guns both towed and selfpropelled to meet its defence operational requirements. The choice for purchasing the said guns was short listed in December, 1982 to (1) M/s. Sofma of France, (2) M/s. A.B. Bofors of Sweden (Bofors), (3) M/s. International Military Services (IMS) of U.K. and (4) M/s. Voest Alpine of Austria. 6. In April 1984, the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs ('CCPA' for short) approved the proposal for procurement of 155 mm guns along with certain related equipments and ammunition at a total estimated cost of Rs. 1600 crores. In May 1984, a Negotiating Committee comprising of the Defence Secretary as the Chairman, Secretary (DP&S), Scientific Adviser to Raksha Mantri (i.e. Secretary, Research and Development), Secretary (Expenditure), Additional Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Financial Adviser, Defence Services and the Deputy Chief of Army Staff as Members was constituted for detailed negotiations with the various suppliers. 7. The Negotiating Committee started its deliberation in June 1984 and decided that fresh sealed technical and commercial offers should be invited from the four shortlisted firms. After the offers were received from the aforesaid four firms, technical and commercial negotiations were held with all the said firms and thereafter revised offers were invited and the same were received on 1st September. Offers were also invited from the ammunition manufacturers. After seeking certain clarifications from the aforesaid firms with a view to evaluate the offers of all the competitions, all the four firms submitted fresh commercial offers on 10th May 1985. Thereafter, memb