Early Times Report
Jammu, Feb 1: A high court division bench of Justice Muzaffar Hussain Attar and Justice B S Walia today restored suo-moto powers to the state accountability commission (SAC), an anti-graft body.
In its 40-page judgment, the bench allowed the appeals filed by SAC and dismissed the writ petitions which had been allowed by the writ court.
Justice B L Bhat announced the judgment on behalf of the division bench and read its operative part in the open court.
The bench, while reversing the writ court judgment, observed that the SAC chairperson and members were to be appointed by the governor on the recommendations of the committee comprising of high constitutional authorities, including the chief minister, the Speaker of Legislative Assembly, the high court Chief Justice, Law Minister and Leader of Legislative Assembly. In view of the composition of the selection committee and the positions held by the appointing authority as also the constitutional position held by the chairperson and members before their appointment to the commission, the position of the commission does not become that of a mere statutory commission but its position is heightened and enhanced to a different and distinct level than that of a statutory body. The SAC in the aforesaid position, though created by the statue, is more than a statutory body and in this factual and legal situation, it would be deemed, in law, to possess the power, authority and jurisdiction to initiate suo-moto proceedings. The SAC Act 2002 is not an ordinary legislation. It is a legislation, which has to accomplish and fulfil the dream of millions of people to have a corruption-free society.
The bench further held that the apprehension projected by the advocate general, counsels for the state, SAC and private respondents about the abuse of the provisions of SAC Act 2002 by sending anonymous/pseudonymous complaints or initiating proceedings on the basis of press reports cannot be a ground to deny the power of initiation of suo-moto proceedings to SAC as its chairperson and members are those persons, who have held the highest constitutional posts and in their appointment, confidence has been reposed in them by the constitutional authorities of the state, who constitute the selection committee and by not less than the governor, who is the highest constitutional authority in the state.
The bench said the above discussion "does lead to a legal conclusion that SAC is an authority catapulted to a position higher than that of a statutory authority and is possessed of powers of initiating suo-moto proceedings".
The bench said the Regulation 9 of Regulations of 2005 only provides for procedure to be followed, which is same that is to be followed in respect of the complaints in terms of section 11 of Act of 2002 and all the safeguards, thus prescribed by the statue will, ip so facto, apply to the proceedings initiated suo-moto by the commission. Thus, in such circumstances also, it shall not have to disclose the contents of the anonymous/pseudonymous complaint or make it known to the public as to which press report has been taken cognizance of for conducting of preliminary inquiry. Regulation 9 of the Regulations of 2005, which prescribes for following procedure, in itself, did not confer any power to initiate suo-moto proceedings on the commission but SAC, as already stated, is possessed of such power and striking down of Regulation 9 by the Writ Court has not denuded SAC of its power of suo-moto initiation of proceedings against a public functionary and that power is still intact, the bench added.
The writ court vide its judgment of January 4, 2013, in a bunch of petitions, had held Regulation 9 of the J&K Accountability Commission Regulations 2005 to be ultra-vires the Act of 2002 and accordingly struck it down. Aggrieved of the judgment, SAC had filed present appeals before the bench assailing the judgment on various grounds.
The appeals filed by SAC were earlier heard by a division bench headed by Chief Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar. Thereafter the bench had recused itself from the matter and a new division bench headed by Justice Muzaffar Hussain Attar was constituted which heard the matter at length and reserved its judgment which was announced today. |
