Delhi HC rejects RIL plea to quash CBI case against it

New Delhi, Oct 10 (PTI) The Delhi High Court has
cleared the decks for trial against Reliance Industries
relating to seizure of classified documents from its office in
1998 by rejecting its plea that the case was time-barred.
The company is facing criminal case under the Official
Secrets Act for the alleged recovery of some secret documents
during search of the office premise of V Balasubramanian, the
then Group President of Reliance Industries, in 1998.
A criminal case was filed but considering the
sensitivity of the case, investigation was handed over to the
CBI which registered a complaint in 2002.
The company had contended that the CBI failed to
register the complaint within the time frame of three years
and as such it should not have been proceeded.
However, the High Court refused to accept the
contention that 142 days' delay in registering the complaint
could be a ground to quash the proceedings before the trial
court.
Justice S N Dhingra accepted the CBI's plea that the
delay in registering the complaint had occurred as it was
seeking the opinion of the Attorney General and Solicitor
General, whether the company can be made party to the case.
"I, therefore, find that the explanation given by the
CBI for delay in filing the complaint was rightly accepted by
the learned CMM and rightly upheld by the learned ASJ,"
Justice Dhingra said.
Since there was a delay in registering the complaint,
the agency had approached the trial court for condoning the
delay which was granted.
The company had challenged the decision in the High
Court contending that the delay was wrongly condoned and order
of the trial court was illegal as no due diligence on the part
of the CBI had been shown in filing the complaint within three
years and therefore it was barred by limitation.

However, the plea by Reliance Industries was rejected
by the court observing that the CBI has given good reasons for
not filing the complaint within the prescribed period and the
condonation granted by the trial court was without any
fallacy.
"In the present case the CBI has given good and valid
reasons why the complaint could not be filed within the time
despite the fact that the investigation had been completed
much before the period of limitation.
"I consider that if an investigating agency seeks
opinion whether a corporation can be made accused on the basis
of evidence collected during investigation, it cannot be said
that the investigating agency acted without due diligence,"
the judge said.
The court also rejected the contention of the company
that indiscriminate condonation of delay on flimsy ground
takes away its right of speedy trial which emanates from
Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
"So long as courts in India are generous in
entertaining the petitions against interim and interlocutory
orders and in granting stays but have no time to dispose them
of with same speed at which they are admitted and so long we
succumb to the culture of adjournments as prevalent, the
speedier trial of criminal cases in case of powerful persons
and in case of persons with money, is a distant dream," the
court said. PTI AHA
MHM