SC holds courts cannot interfere in investigation

The Supreme Court has held that a court cannot interfere with the course of investigation of a crime by directing any investigating agency to focus on any particular office and do the investigation accordingly.

A bench comprising Justices Arijit Pasayat and Asok Kumar Ganguly while allowing the appeal of Sharif Ahemad and others, noted, ‘In view of what is stated in M C Abraham’s case the order of the High Court is clearly unsustainable and is set aside.

We make it clear that we have not expressed any opinion on the merit of the case.

It is brought to our notice by learned counsel for the respondent that the chargesheet has already been filed under section 307 IPC.

But that was in compliance with this court’s order. It is open to the investigating officer to file the chargesheet afresh on the basis of the material collected during investigation.’ The Metropolitan Magistrate, Patiala House, New Delhi had directed the investigating officer to add section 307 of the Indian Penal Code in the present case and investigate the matter properly.

The order was passed on July 9, 2007 and therefore an appeal was filed in the Delhi High Court against the order.

The High Court, however, upheld the order of the Magistrate directing that the course adopted by the learned Metropolitan Magistrate was permissible in law.

The accused, later, approached the apex court against the High Court judgment.

Justice Pasayat speaking for the bench noted with approval the observations of the earlier bench of the apex court, which had held that investigating agency had unfettered powers to investigate a crime and the court could interfere only when the police investigation was mala fide just to prevent the police officer from misusing his power.

The apex court further noted that once the chargesheet was filed on completion of investigation and the court took cognizance of the chargesheet then it was exclusively for the court to decide whether an accused was guilty or not on the basis of evidence produced both by prosecution and defence.