Aastha Thakur
Published on August 03rd 2022 at 22:32 IST
The Supreme Court has in this case reaffirmed that while exercising power under Section 482 CrPC, the High Court, can grant stay of investigation or any other interim relief only in the ‘rarest of rare cases’.
The sitting judges were Justices MR Shah and BV Nagarathna set aside the order passed by the Gujarat HC while considering plea filed under Section 482 CrPC read with Article 226 of the Constitution granting interim reliefs staying further criminal proceedings and resultantly staying further investigation.
The Bench noted that the Gujarat HC wrongly passed order of not quashing the criminal proceedings and granting the interim relief to petitioner. The Court observed that:
“Despite the earlier judgment and order passed by this Court in the very criminal proceedings quashing and setting aside the earlier interim orders passed by the High Court, which came to be set aside by this Court, again, the learned Single Judge has granted the very same interim relief, which as observed hereinabove, can be said to be in teeth of and contrary to our earlier judgment and order in the case of M/s. Neeharika Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. (supra). We are not observing anything further as the learned Senior Advocates appearing on behalf of the original writ petitioners – accused have prayed not to pass any further reasoned order.”
The SC Bench also relied on decision given in Neeharika Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. Vs. State of Maharashtra and Ors. (2021) and stated that the Single Judge of Gujarat High Court has not properly appreciated the law and principle laid down by apex court that grant of any stayof investigation and/or anyinterim relied while exercising powers under Section 482 CrPC would be only in the rarest of rare cases. Moreover, the Court also highlighted the rights of the Investigation Officer to investigate the criminal proceedings.