Supreme Court Stays Kerala HC Order That Quashed FIR Against Former DGP Jacob Thomas In The Dredger Scam Case

The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed the 2021 Kerala High Court Judgment that had quashed the First Information Report (FIR) against Dr. Jacob Thomas, Former Director General of Police of Kerala in the dredger scam case in which he has been accused of engaging in tender rigging.

The FIR was stayed by a division bench of Justice Abhay S. Oka and Justice Sanjay Karol.

In February 2022, the Supreme Court had issued notice in an appeal filed by Santhyan Naravoor, at whose instance the FIR against Thomas was registered by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) under Section 13(1)(d)(ii) read with Section 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and Section 120B of the Indian Penal Code.

In 2021, the Kerala High Court had quashed the FIR registered against Thomas noting that the decision to accept tender from M/s IHC Merwede was the collective decision of the Department Purchase Committee which included three representatives of the Government. The High Court was also of the view that the FIR against Thomas did not contain the necessary allegations or facts. 

A single bench of Justice R. Narayana Pisharadi had noted that although its power under Section 482 of the CrPC can only be exercised sparingly and with circumspection in rare cases to quash the F.I.R, it should not feel inhibited when the circumstances warrant the exercise of such power to do substantial justice to the parties.

"The Court would be justified to quash any proceeding if it finds that initiation/continuance of it amounts to abuse of the process of court or quashing of the proceedings would otherwise serve the ends of justice."

The High Court had also noted that when the decision to accept the tender submitted by M/s.IHC Merwede was the result of the collective wisdom of a competent committee of public servants, only one among them cannot be selected and crucified on the allegation of corruption as if it is a personal or individual decision.

"When culpability is attributed on the basis of a collective decision taken by a group of persons, one person cannot be singled out from them and criminal proceedings cannot be initiated against only one of them. If it is done, it indicates malice on the part of the investigating officer."

Background:

Thomas is an IPS officer who had served as DGP in the Kerala Cadre. He was the Director of Ports during the period from 16.09.2009 to 17.03.2014.

The allegation against him pertains to certain irregularities in the purchase of cutter suction dredger for the Ports Department.

The Additional Chief Secretary (Finance) had conducted an inspection at the Directorate of Ports and an FIR was registered against the petitioner by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) under Section 13(1)(d)(ii) read with Section 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and Section 120B of the Indian Penal Code.

The primary allegation against him was that he purchased a cutter suction dredger from M/s IHC Merwede for an exorbitant amount by overlooking the lowest tender which was submitted by M/s BEML.

Case Title: Sathyan Naravoor v Dr. Jacob Thomas IPS, SLP(Crl) No. 1353/2022