Ashok Kumar Aggarwal IRS

Supreme Court has reinstated former ED officer Ashok Kumar Aggarwal with consequential benefits dismissing the appeal of Ministry of Finance earlier challenging the order of Central Administrative Tribunal.  This have paved the way for appointment of Aggarwal as Commissioner of Income Tax.  However, while quashing the suspension order of Aggarwal, Supreme Court held that the suspension orders passed by government were nothing but nullity being in contravention of final order of the Tribunal.  Bench of Justice B.S. Chauhan and Justice S.A. Bobde also held that it was not permissible for the government to consider the renewal of the suspension order and such an attitude tantamount to contempt of court and arbitrariness and these facts make it crystal clear that it is a clear cut case of legal malice on the part of government.  Court further held that fresh order continuing suspension of Aggarwal was illegal, unwarranted and uncalled for and the competent authority had acted unreasonably and illegally. Aggarwal has been suffering for last 13 years after he was made a victim by notorious arms dealer Abhishek Verma who had earlier made a false statement against Aggarwal and tendered pardon by court after no objection given by CBI.  Aggarwal as Deputy Director of ED had earlier investigated 10 cases against Verma which resulted in filing of 10 charge sheets against him for FERA violations of more than Rs. 100 crores.  As Deputy Director of ED, Aggarwal had been investigating many high profile cases for FERA violations and was removed from ED on the complaint of another FERA accused Subhash Barjatya.

Supreme Court also dismissed the appeals filed by CBI challenging the order of High Court of Delhi which had earlier set aside the order of trial court making notorious arms dealer Abhishek Verma an approver in the case.  While dismissing CBI appeal, Court held that trial court should take note of the correspondence exchanged between the judicial authority of Switzerland as well as communication particularly, reply to Letter Rogatory sent by Indian Authorities, letter dated 13.1.1998 sent by the Swiss Bank to Barjatya (confirming the genuineness of the alleged fax message), letter dated 4.2.1998 sent by Manju Barjatya, wife of Subhash Barjatya  and the contradictory statements in the complaint dated 4.1.1998 by Barjatya and the corresponding FIR. Court further held that the material required to be considered by the court had not even been placed before the court while disposing of the application for grant of pardon and the manner in which the application had been dealt with as the CBI and Abhishek Verma had been playing hide and seek with the court and inspite of the fact that court had asked the CBI to disclose the criminal cases pending against Verma, no information was furnished to the court.

One more appeal filed by the CBI against Aggarwal challenging order of High Court of Delhi whereby the sanction order in alleged disproportionate assets case had been declared to have been issued by sanctioning authority without application of mind to the relevant material which admittedly had not been sent by the CBI, was also dismissed by Supreme Court. It was held by the Court that there was no fair assessment regarding the income of Aggarwal and his family members by the CBI and it is far from satisfaction as is evident from the preliminary enquiry (PE) report of DA case. Taking note of two orders passed by Delhi High Court ordering registration of 2 FIRs against Neeraj Kumar, the then Joint Director and Vinod Pandey, Investigating officer for highhandedness, not conducting investigation in a fair manner and for fabricating documents during course of investigation.  Accepting that the legal opinion earlier given by Ministry of Law was done at the request of Ministry of Finance whereby the sanction orders in both the cases had been invalidated, Court held that the said opinion had to be accepted by concerned departments.  Court also took note of the affidavit filed by Jaswant Singh, former Finance Minister accepting the findings of the order of High Court wherein he also stated that he had approved sanction in routine manner and in the process, justice had been miscarried.  Court also expressed its concern that the CBI suppressed some of the most material facts even from Supreme Court and suppression of this crucial fact indicates serious and substantial prejudice to Aggarwal. In light of above findings of Supreme Court, it is expected that sufferings of Aggarwal may come to an end and he is back in his position.