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SCA/15921/2010 5/ 5 ORDER
IN
THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD
SPECIAL
CIVIL APPLICATION No. 15921 of
2010
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SANT
SHRI ASHARAMJI ASHRAM - THROUGH ADMINISTRATOR AND - Petitioner(s)
Versus
HON'BLE
MR JUSTICE D K TRIVEDI COMMISSION & 1 - Respondent(s)
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Appearance
:
MR
BM GUPTA for
Petitioner(s) : 1,
None for Respondent(s) : 1,
MS MAITHILI
MEHTA, ASST. GOVERNMENT PLEADER for Respondent(s) :
2,
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CORAM
:
HONOURABLE
MR.JUSTICE AKIL KURESHI
Date
: 16/12/2010
ORAL
ORDER
1. In Sant Shri
Asharamji Ashram, situated in the outskirts of city of Ahmedabad, an
incident of unnatural and unfortunate death of two young inmates of
the Ashram school took place, in the month of July, 2008. The State
Government, thereupon, appointed one man Commission of Hon’ble Mr.
Justice D.K. Trivedi(Retd.), under the Commissions of Inquiry Act,
1952. Terms of the Commission are as follows:
“The commission to
inquire into (I) the facts and circumstances leading to the death of
said two school boys and (ii) the police investigation to solve the
case of death of two children and adequacy of action taken.”
2. This petition has
been filed by Sant Shri Asharamji Ashram, challenging an order dated
20.10.2010, passed by the Commission, by which the petitioner’s
application Exhibit-2042 came to be disposed of, observing that the
contentions raised in such application can be considered as
averments, on behalf of the Ashram. In the application Exhibit-2042,
following prayers were made:
“31. In
view of the above mentioned facts, it is humbly submitted that:-
a. The evidence of all
the above stated witnesses should be considered as false and fake and
hence should be struck off from the record of the Hon’ble Commission.
b. The facts mentioned
in the points from (a) to (n) in the point no.28 above should be
studied in depth.
c. Mr. Praful Vaghela
and Mr. Amrut Prajapati should be summoned to produce the complete
cassette of which only a part of 2 minutes is produced.
d. If Mr. Praful
Vaghela and Mr. Amrut Prajapati fail to produce the complete
cassette, then the CD produced earlier should not be considered as
true, fair and legal evidence.
e. The summons related
to dead persons should be disposed off unconditionally.
f. The above mentioned
all the witnesses, had left the Ashram long before the unfortunate
incident of Dipesh and Abhishek. They have also mentioned in their
depositions, that they do not know anything regarding the incident.
Under such circumstances, the case of Dipesh and Abhishek should be
investigated in the light of the scientific reports of FSL and post
mortem note, the facts and findings of the Police and CID and the
(fake) evidence of the above mentioned witnesses should not be taken
into consideration at any juncture.
g. The issue of Black
Magic is fake, fabricated and self-generated by Conspirators and
Media. Hence the topic of Black Magic should be dropped from the
scope of inquiry of this Hon’ble Commission.”
3. In the present
petition, in addition to the questioning the legality of the said
order dated 20.10.2010, the petitioner Ashram has also prayed for
further direction that the Commission has no power to hold inquiry or
to examine the witnesses or to carry out any investigation into the
subject of Black Magic or Tantrik Vidhya and further that, all the
witnesses, who have been examined, their depositions be canceled and
the Commission be directed not to hold any further inquiry in this
direction.
4. In nutshell, it is
the case of the petitioner that there is no evidence of any Black
Magic having been performed, leading to the death of the two young
boys. In fact, there is voluminous evidence to the contrary. Such
angle is sought to be involved by certain disgrunted persons to
malign and defame Sant Asaram. The angle of Black Magic is not part
of the scope of the Commission’s inquiry, and therefore, no witness
could have been examined by the Commission in this regard.
Depositions of the witnesses, already examined, therefore, should be
quashed and the Commission should be prevented from examining the
further witnesses, in this regard.
5. In my opinion, the
Commission has been appointed under the Commissions of Inquiry Act,
1952, and is carrying out a fact finding inquiry. Its procedure is
largely left to be judged by the Commission itself. The power of the
Commission are specified in Section-4 of the Act, which includes the
powers of the Civil Court, for summoning and enforcing the attendance
of any person from any part of India and examining him on oath,
requiring the discovery and production of any document, receiving
evidence on affidavits, etc..
6. The Commission has
recorded evidence of several witnesses. It is in the process of
collecting further evidence. It is yet to complete the inquiry, to be
able to submit a final report. At this stage, I do not find that any
interference is called for. The Commission has kept the entire issue,
raised by the petitioner in his application Exhibit-2042, open. No
final decision is rendered, thereon. At this interlocutory stage, it
is neither necessary nor appropriate for me to go into the question,
whether certain aspect or an angle has already been concluded in any
other proceedings or not. It would always be for the Commission to
take into consideration such issues, at the time of hearing, all the
sides concerned and before submitting its final report.
7. To enable the
Commission, to inquire into the facts and circumstances leading to
the death of two school boys and the police investigation to solve
the case of their death and the adequacy of the action taken, it is
largely the discretionary powers of the Commission to collect the
evidence, on different issues and aspects. At this stage, therefore,
no writ can be issued, as prayed for by the petitioner.
With the above
observations, this petition is DISPOSED of.
(AKIL
KURESHI, J.)
Umesh/
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