The Gauhati High Court has recently dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking the transfer of a vigilance investigation to a special investigation team or a judicial commission.
The Division Bench of Justice Kalyan Rai Surana and Justice Mridul Kumar Kalita
held that the PIL was barred by the principles of res judicata, as the same issue had been raised in a previous PIL filed by the same petitioner.
The petitioner had alleged that illegal and irregular land acquisition compensation of Rs 65,84,76,557 was paid, and therefore, sought a direction to transfer the investigation of the case to a special investigation team or a judicial commission.
However, the court observed that the petitioner had filed a similar PIL earlier, which was dismissed at the motion stage.
The court noted that the prayer in the earlier PIL was for a direction to initiate an enquiry against the officers for irregularities in payment of compensation to beneficiaries.
Since this prayer was rejected, the court held that the present PIL was barred by the principles of res judicata.
Furthermore, the court observed that a charge-sheet had been submitted in respect of the vigilance case, and therefore, there was no scope for transferring the investigation to any other agency or forum.
The bench noted that the petitioner had not challenged the charge-sheet, and therefore, there was no merit in the PIL.
The court also referred to a decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Kunga Nima Lepcha & Ors. v. State of Sikkim & Ors., (2010) 4 SCC 513, but observed that this decision was not relevant to the present case.