Appeals should be in stipulated time, SC tells CBI
The Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed after a delay of
647 days in a Chhattisgarh case and asked its director to set up a monitoring mechanism to ensure that the appeals are filed without delays.
The rules envisage filing of the appeals against the High Court orders within
60 days and within 180 days in case of an appeal in the High Court against a trial court judgment.
A bench comprisintg Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice M.R. Shah stressed that it is the responsibility of the CBI director to ensure that steps are taken on the administrative side to prevent such lapse of delay, resulting in dismissal of its cases. “We are of the view that the CBI must take all necessary steps to ensure that these kind of delays do not occur in future. Delays are liable to cause grave misgivings and benefit to the culprits whom the agency should not let go scotfree,” the Bench said in its order on Friday.
In November 2018, a special CBI court at Raipur had convicted the accused for three years in a corruption case, but the High Court by its judgment in June 2019 reversed the ruling and acquitted the accused.
When the CBI pleaded that the delay was because of the Covid pandemic, the court said such an alibi won’t work.
“In application for condonation of delay, the explanation given is on the ground of Covid, which does not explain the entire duration of delay,” the court ruled.