HC relief for Virbhadra, wife

Vijay Arora

Shimla, May 20

The High Court today dismissed the appeal filed by former IAS officer SM Katwal against the acquittal of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and his wife Pratibha Singh in the alleged CD case by the Special Judge (Forests), Shimla.

This judgment was passed by Justice Dharam Chand Chaudhary on the petition filed by Katwal for condoning the delay in filing the appeal filed by him against the acquittal order of the duo.

There was a delay of 96 days in filing the appeal.

Katwal had pleaded that the technicalities of law cannot be made applicable strictly to the extent of snatching away the right to appeal earned by the victim.

Katwal had approached the High Court to seek leave to file appeal against the acquittal order and alleged that the state government had not filed appeal against the orders as it was headed by Virbhadra Singh himself.

He also claimed that he was the ‘victim’ and de-facto complainant in the case as he had first filed the petition in the High Court seeking directions for conducting CBI inquiry into the case and the applicant was a whistleblower, who had initiated the legal proceedings culminating in the registration of the criminal case.

While dismissing the pleas of the applicant, the court observed: “In a case of prosecution launched on the registration of FIR and presentation of police report under Section 173 of the Criminal Procedure Code, it is only the state, which is competent to prefer the appeal and the statute does not confer power on a complainant or informant, who is not a victim, to prefer an appeal against the acquittal. The question, however, arises that the petitioner before this court is covered by the meaning so assigned to term ‘victim’ or not. The answer to this poser in all fairness and in the ends of justice will be in the negative for the reason that irrespective of the complaint having been made by him, he is not a complainant nor the case is registered at his instance. He at the most is a whistleblower.”

The court further observed: “Therefore, when the petitioner is not proved to be a victim, he is not entitled to prefer an appeal against the acquittal of the respondents and even the application does not disclose sufficient cause as required for condonation of 96 days’ delay, as occurred in filing the appeal.”

While dealing with the merit of the case, Justice Chaudhary observed: “In the nature of the evidence available on record, Virbhadra Singh and his wife Pratibha Singh have rightly been acquitted from the charges.”

The Vigilance Department had lodged an FIR against the couple on August 3, 2009, on the basis of an alleged audio CD released by Vijay Singh Mankotia at a press conference in Dharamsala on May 28, 2007, alleging that it contained the voices of Virbhadra Singh, Pratibha Singh, a retired IAS officer for obtaining pecuniary advantages from two companies.

Both were acquitted on December 24, 2012, by Special Judge, Shimla, and Katwal approached the High Court to seek leave to file appeal against the acquittal order.