- (1.) Petition has prayed for quashing the entire criminal proceeding pending before the Court of the Sub-Judge-cum-C.B.I., Dhanbad vide R.C. Case No. 20 (A) of 1995 (D) including the order dated 1-2-2001, whereby cognizance for the offences under Sections 420, 465, 468, 471 and 120-B I.P.C. and Section 13(2) read with Section 13 (1) (d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the corresponding Section 5(2) read with Section 5(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947 was taken against the petitioner. The impugned order of cognizance and the continuation of the criminal proceedings against the petitioners has been challenged mainly on the ground that the Investigating Officer had intentionally and deliberately suppressed the material fact and by projecting the facts in a distorted manner, has misled the learned Court below to take cognizance of the offences against him and thereby the investigating agency has abused the process of the Court, which has caused serious prejudice to the petitioner.
(2.) For appreciating the grounds, the background facts leading to the filing of the instant case may be noted. The case against the petitioner and the other co-accused persons was registered on the basis of the F.I.R. lodged on 17-10-1995 by the Inspector, C.B.I. The allegations in the F.I.R. are that during the month of May, 1986, the Coal India Limited (C.I.L.), Kolkata, invited Open Tenders from Contractors for execution of job of screening, loading and transportation of coal etc. and for the stock yard operations of various stock yards of the C.I.L., which included the Alakh Diha stock yard of the B.C.C.L. In response to the Tender Notification, three tenders were received in respect of the job concerning Alakh Diha stock yard operation. One of them was the Tender submitted by M/s. Continental Transports and Construction Corporation (represented by Accused 6 to 8). The tenders were opened by a Tender Committee comprising of four nominated officials of the B.C.C.L., namely, Kanhai Lal Bose, N. S. Modi, Harbhajan Singh Chilian and H. S. Arora, (cited as accused Nos. 2 to 5 in the charge-sheet). The petitioner was at the relevant time, the Chairman-cum-Managing Director of the B.C.C.L. It is alleged that in furtherance of a criminal conspiracy hatched out with intent of extending special favours and to entrust the contract job to the aforesaid contractor, the petitioner and the members of the Tender Committee had acted fraudulently and dishonestly in processing the Tenders for the job of Alakh Diha stock yard of the B.C.C.L. and had granted the contract job to the said firm. It is further alleged that with intent to cause wrongful loss to the Company and to make a wrongful gain for themselves, the accused persons had illegally included certain additional items of work within the scope of the contract job allotted to Contractor, without there being any specific necessity for the same. The specific allegation against the present petitioner is that he had acted beyond the powers delegated to him and had granted approval to the recommendations of the Tender Committee for expansion of the scope of work related to Alakh Diha stock yard by allowing inclusion of certain additional items of job. Such approval by the petitioner was allegedly made with mala fide intentions and without prior approval of the C.I.L. The further allegation is that the contract job was awarded to the said contractor @ Rs. 5.25 per MT during the year 1987, whereas, subsequently in the year 1992, the rate paid to different Transporters for the same job was Rs. 4.05 per MT.
(3.) The main ground advanced by the learned counsel for the petitioner is that even though the petitioner at the relevant time was the Chairman-cum-Managing Director of the B.C.C.L. and even though it was the Coal India Ltd., who had invited the Tenders including Tender for the operations to be carried out at the Alakh Diha stock yard of the B.C.C.L., yet the petitioner had neither usurped any authority nor acted beyond his powers in the matter of allotment of the contract job to the Contractors. According to learned counsel, the Board of Directors of the B.C.C.L., who by virtue of the authority vested in them by the C.I.L., had taken a unanimous decision for allotment of the contract job in respect of the operations to be carried out at the Alakh Diha stock yard. Such decision, according to learned counsel, was taken on the basis of the recommendations of the Tender Committee, which was constituted as a totally independent body specifically for scrutinizing the Tenders received. It is further claimed that the proposal to include the additional items of work in the contract, was made by the Tender Committee on the basis of the requirements and exigencies of the work to be executed and the granting of approval to the recommendations of the Tender Committee, cannot constitute any act of offence nor can any adverse presumption be drawn against the petitioner for granting approval. The ground on which further emphasis had been laid by the petitioner is that the order of cognizance as taken by the learned Court below was on the basis of incomplete and distorted statement of facts and not on the basis of a correct representation of the facts. Learned counsel explains that it was only when the petitioner had brought to the notice of the superior officers of the Investigating Agency and to the concerned authorities of the C.I.L., that a direction was issued to the investigating officer to investigate into all the relevant aspects of the case pointed out by the petitioner whereafter, further investigation was made and the actual state of affairs, as explained above, was brought on record before the Court below by the Investigating Officer at a belated stage by way of a supplementary charge-sheet. Such essential informations were not made available to the learned Magistrate on the date of his passing the impugned order of cognizance. Learned counsel in this context refers to the various annexures to the petitioner's memorandum of application to buttress his submissions. Learned counsel further argues that even otherwise, the order of cognizance is bad in law as because the petitioner at the relevant time being a Presidential Appointee and being a Public servant, the alleged offences relate to certain acts in discharge of his official duties and, as such, it was mandatory for the Investigating agency to obtain prior sanction of the Central Government under Section 197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for the prosecution of the petitioner in the instant case. Since, no such sanction was obtained, the prosecution of the petitioner for the alleged offences is totally illegal and against the mandatory provisions of law.;