REKHA PALLI REKHA PALLI,J. - (1.)Vide the present petition, the petitioner, the Superintendent of Customs, Customs House, Kolkata seeks quashing of the order dated 23rd April, 2015 passed by the learned Special Court, P.C. Act, (CBI)-06, Patiala House Courts, New Delhi. Under the impugned order, the learned Trial Court while considering the closure report filed by the respondent/CBI, had referred the matter to the respondent for further investigation under Section 173(8) Cr.P.C. with a direction that during the course of further investigation, the records of the case be also placed before the sanctioning authority for consideration of the question of grant of sanction to prosecute the petitioner and four other public servants.
(2.)At the outset, the learned counsel for the petitioner has been asked to explain the inordinate delay of over three and a half years in approaching the Court. Learned counsel for the petitioner offers no explanation for the same except for stating that the petitioner decided to file the present petition after becoming aware of the decision of this Court in Crl.M.C. No.2193 of 2015 entitled M.S. Pradhan Vs. CBI wherein this Court had set aside the very same impugned order viz-a-viz the petitioners therein who are the persons from whom the petitioner is alleged to have taken bribe for being forwarded to his superior officer. Consequently, this Court had set aside the cognizance taken against those petitioners by the learned Trial Court.
(3.)In my considered opinion, the aforesaid explanation for the inordinate delay in approaching this Court is wholly unsatisfactory but since I have still proceeded to hear the learned counsel for the petitioner on merits, I deem it appropriate to deal with those submissions as well.