Death Of The Sole Public Servant Does Not Enable The Special Judge Under The P.C. Act To Transmit The Case To The Regular Criminal Court For Trial Of The Surviving Non-Public Servants

I chanced to come across a recent judgment of a learned single Judge of the High Court of Kerala directing the Special Judge exercising jurisdiction under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, to transmit the C.C. 20.64 crores and thereby committed offences under Section 5 punishable under Section 5 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947 corresponding to Section 13 punishable under Section 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 read with Sections 120 B, 409 and 420 IPC.. On 18-02-2005 A1, the sole public servant died before the framing of charge by the Special Court.. On 05-02-2009 the Special Judge took the view that since the public servant was liable to face trial before the Special Court along with the non-public servants and also since the sole public servant had already expired even before the framing of charge by the Court, the private persons alone cannot be tried before the Special Court. The learned Senior counsel appearing for the appellant argued before the Supreme Court that with the death of the public servant before the framing of charge by the Special Judge, the Special Court ceased to have jurisdiction to try the surviving non-public servants who became liable to be tried before the regular criminal Court, namely, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Bombay. If the Special Court were to transmit the case to the regular criminal Court for trying the surviving non-public servants for the alleged conspiracy with the deceased public servant and for the non-P.C.Act offences, the regular criminal Court cannot take cognizance of those offences on the basis of the charge sheet filed by the CBI or by the State Vigilance Police. For this reason also, it is neither permissible for the Special Judge to transmit the case involving the surviving non-public servants to the regular criminal Court, nor is it permissible for the regular criminal Court to take cognizance of the offences falling under Section 3 or Section 3 read with Section 4 of the P.C.Act on the charge sheet filed by the State Vigilance Police or by the CBI or by the authorized Inspector of Police.