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The State of Chhattisgarh & Anr. vs. Aman Kumar Singh & Ors. (with Uchit Sharma vs. The State of Chhattisgarh & Ors.) (Criminal Appeals @ SLP (Crl.) Nos. 1703-1705 of 2022 & 1769-1770 of 2022)

SLP (Crl.) · 2023 INSC 189Decided 1 Mar 2023
SLP (Crl.) Nos. 1703-1705 of 2022
S. Ravindra Bhat · Dipankar Datta

Background

Uchit Sharma lodged a complaint with the Chhattisgarh Chief Minister alleging that Aman Kumar Singh (an IRS officer and former Principal Secretary to the erstwhile Chief Minister) and his wife Yasmin Singh held assets disproportionate to their known income. This led to a preliminary inquiry and, in February 2020, registration of an FIR under Section 13(1)(b)/13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act read with Section 120-B IPC. Aman Singh and Yasmin Singh challenged the FIR before the Chhattisgarh High Court, which quashed it, holding that the FIR did not disclose a cognizable offence and appeared based on mere "probabilities." The State of Chhattisgarh and the original complainant, Uchit Sharma, appealed to the Supreme Court against this quashing.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the High Court had exceeded its limited jurisdiction to quash an FIR, at the registration/investigation stage, only a suspicion of a cognizable offence is needed, not proof or even a strong prima facie case, and courts must not conduct a "mini-trial" by weighing evidence at this stage. It found the FIR did contain sufficient particulars (including some allegation of disproportionality) to warrant investigation, and that the proper course was to let the investigation proceed to its logical conclusion, with any closure report or chargesheet to be tested later before the trial court. The Court also separately rejected the respondents' fallback argument that the FIR was vitiated by political mala fide, noting that the pleadings were vague, that the Chief Minister (against whom mala fide was alleged) had not been personally impleaded as required by law, and that even a politically motivated FIR is not automatically invalid if the underlying material otherwise justifies investigation: genuine corruption prosecutions should not be defeated merely because they also carry political overtones. It set aside the High Court's judgment, restored the FIR, dismissed the writ petitions, and allowed the appeals, while extending interim protection against coercive steps for three weeks to let the respondents pursue other remedies.

Lesson Learnt

High Courts should be extremely cautious about quashing an FIR, especially in corruption/disproportionate-assets cases, at the investigation stage; suspicion of an offence (not proof) is enough to justify an investigation, and allegations of political mala fide against unnamed or un-impleaded officials, without more, will not by themselves defeat a corruption investigation that is otherwise supported by some material.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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