New Delhi: “CBI is not God,” the Supreme Court has said, emphasising that not every case needs to go to the investigating agency.
A bench of Justices NV Ramana and Sanjiv Khanna made this observation while setting aside an order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which had handed over a case to the CBI from the local police.
“CBI is not God. They can’t know everything, crack every case,” remarked Justice Ramana, not finding favour with the high court order.
By an order in August 2017, the high court had ordered CBI investigation into disappearance of a man, whose brother had approached it. Petitioner Shyambir Singh had complained that his brother was missing since 2012 when he had gone to collect money from certain people who had bought land from their father. At this, the high court had transferred the investigation from Palwal police to CBI.
The CBI, however, challenged this in the apex court, pointing out there were no good reasons why the local police could not have investigated the case and rather the premier investigating agency, which has limited manpower and resources, should be roped in.
The Supreme Court agreed with the agency: “Not every case can go to the CBI. If every other case starts going to the CBI then there will be utter chaos. This can't be done.”
The bench told Singh that he should challenge the report by the Palwal police, which had attempted to close the case by citing his brother as untraceable.
“You (Singh) just follow the process of law. If police has filed a closure report then the appropriate remedy is to challenge it by way of a protest petition. Everything under the sun cannot be challenged under Article 226 before high courts,” it told his lawyer.
The court also asked the lawyer for the Haryana police to investigate the case properly and disposed of the petition by allowing the CBI’s appeal.
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