Supreme Court: Modality Proposed By Calcutta High Court To CBI For Filing Appeals Not A Mandate

The Supreme Court in the case CBI v. S.R. Ramamani observed and held that the judgement of the Calcutta High Court, which proposed the mechanism for filing of an appeal before the High court against acquittal in the CBI cases should not be treated as the mandate.
The High Court in its order passed on 08.06.2022 wherein the court suggested that against an order of the acquittal, the Zonal Head should obtain a comment of the Prosecutor and the Assistant Solicitor General should send the comments directly to the Director General of Prosecution in order to take decision as to whether an appeal should be filed or not. The High Court proposed the modality for ensuring that the appeal is being in the time.
the bench comprising of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Bela Trivedi in the case observed and has stated that this court deems it appropriate that the impugned judgment dated 08.06.2022 passed by the High Court of Calcutta, wherein the court mandate and the directions are contrary under Section 378(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, the statutory compliance is necessary and is not discretionary.
The court in its order stated that the CBI for filing an affidavit detailing the mechanism either in existence or proposed, that can be put in place so that appeals can be filed before the High Court within the period of limitation.
Therefore, the CBI in the case stated compiled with the direction and has produced the circular for ensuring that all the appeal are filed within the limited period of time.
It has also been observed by the High Court that the director of the Prosecution shall take a decision within the period of 7 days as to whether an appeal has to be filed or not.