Constitution of India – Arts. 226, 136 – Investigation by independent agency – Death of the wife of senior judicial officer – Case of the appellants-mother and the brother of the deceased that the death was suspicious and was not a case of simple suicide, and apprehended that the husband being a senior judicial officer had managed the post mortem in which the cause of death was shown to be suicide by hanging – Several complaints by appellants – Neither FIR registered nor fair investigation carried out – Writ petition by the appellants, remained pending for seven years, and thereafter, dismissed holding that the appellants had adequate statutory remedy available u/s. 156(3) CrPC – Challenge to:
Held: Power to direct CBI to conduct investigation is to be exercised sparingly and such orders should not be passed in routine manner – On facts, the aggrieved party raised allegations of bias and undue influence on the police machinery of the State – Considering the fact that the husband is a senior judicial officer any doubt or apprehension in the minds of the appellants who have lost their family member may be dispelled by the investigation being carried out by CBI – This may result into doing complete justice and enforcing the fundamental right of getting a fair investigation – Thus, the impugned order passed by the High Court is set aside – CBI directed to carry out complete and fair investigation and proceed in accordance with law into the incident and that too expeditiously considering the fact that the incident is of 2016 and submit a report to this Court – If CBI finds that FIR needs to be registered, it may itself do so and proceed accordingly and bring such complaint to a logical conclusion – However, if the CBI comes to the conclusion that there is no material which it could collect which is not sufficient in ordinary course to submit a chargesheet, it would close the proceedings. [Paras 12, 14, 15]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Headnotes prepared by: Nidhi Jain. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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