In a significant ruling tied to the politically sensitive Ramavatar Jaggi murder case, the Supreme Court has dismissed appeals filed by the State of Chhattisgarh and the de-facto complainant Satish Jaggi, while condoning delay in the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) plea seeking leave to appeal against the acquittal of Amit Aishwarya Jogi. The three-judge Bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sanjay Karol, and Sandeep Mehta (author) directed the High Court to consider the CBI’s appeal on its merits and to grant Jogi an opportunity of hearing.

 

The order revives appellate scrutiny in the 2003 murder of National Congress Party leader Ramavatar Jaggi, who was gunned down in Raipur. The trial court, on May 31, 2007, convicted twenty-eight accused under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Arms Act, but acquitted Jogi citing lack of credible evidence. The High Court, in 2011, had rejected the State’s appeal against Jogi’s acquittal, relying on the Supreme Court’s earlier three-judge decision in Lalu Prasad Yadav v. State of Bihar (2010) 5 SCC 1.

 

That ruling held that under Section 378(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), only the Central Government could appeal against acquittals in cases investigated by the CBI or any central agency, thereby excluding the State’s competence. Reaffirming that interpretation, the present Bench held the State’s appeal to be non-maintainable and declined to revisit the ratio in Lalu Prasad Yadav.

 

The Bench also dismissed the de-facto complainant’s plea under the proviso to Section 372 of the CrPC, observing that the victim’s right of appeal is prospective and cannot apply to a judgment of acquittal delivered before the provision’s commencement on December 31, 2009. Taking a balanced view, the apex court, however, condoned the CBI’s delay of 1,373 days in seeking leave to appeal, noting that the case involved grave allegations of political conspiracy and warranted a decision on merits rather than technical rejection.

 

The judges said the High Court ought to have adopted a “liberal and pragmatic approach” in handling the agency’s plea. Accordingly, the Supreme Court set aside the High Court’s order dated September 12, 2011, and remitted the matter for fresh consideration. It also directed that Amit Jogi, the acquitted respondent, be heard at the leave stage along with the State and the complainant to ensure procedural fairness. The ruling thus revives the CBI’s challenge to Jogi’s acquittal before the High Court, reopening judicial examination of one of Chhattisgarh’s most politically charged murder trials after nearly two decades