TMI Blog2002 (2) TMI 1320X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ector of Police to investigate the cases registered under the said Act are not saved under the saving provisions of the reenacted Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. (2) Whether the aforesaid notifications not being inconsistent with the provisions of the re-enacted Act continue to be in force and be deemed to have been issued under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 till aforesaid notifications are superseded or specifically withdrawn. Most of the facts in these appeals are not disputed. It is agreed that during the subsistence of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947 (hereinafter referred to as the 1947 Act ), the Government of Punjab issued a notification on 9.7.1968 authorising Inspectors of Police, for the time being serving in the State Vigilance Department or who may be posted in future to serve with the said agency to investigate the offences under the 1947 Act within the State of Punjab so long as they remain posted in the said agency. In supersession of the notifications dated 9th July, 1968, the Government of Punjab issued another notification on 12.8.1968 under Section 5A(1) of the 1947 Act authorising such inspectors of police to investigate the offences u ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... saying that section 6 only would apply or would have said nothing in that regard and in that eventuality, whole of the Act of 1897 would have its application. It is trite law that even when a saving clause reserving the rights and liabilities under the repealed law is absent in a new enactment, the same will neither be material nor decisive on the question of different intention because in such cases section 6 of the General Clauses Act will be attracted and rights and liabilities acquired, accrued under the repealed law will remain saved unless there is something to infer that legislature intended to destroy the rights and liabilities already accrued. It, therefore, appears clear that the legislature intended to apply section 6 only and not the whole of the Act. Regarding the continuity of the notifications after the 1988 Act, the learned Judge observed: These notifications were issued under sub section (1) of Section 5-A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947, and Inspector of Police serving in the Special Inquiry Agency in the Vigilance Department of the Punjab Government or who were to be posted in future to serve in the said agency were authorised to arrest and inve ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... notifications issued under 1947 Act. Mr.Manoj Swarup, learned counsel appearing for some of the respondents contended that the provisions made in two enactments being inconsistent, as is evident from the scheme of the Acts, sub-section (2) of Section 30 would not save the notifications issued under the 1947 Act. He contended that the Legislature intended not to apply any other provision of the General Clauses Act, as is evident from the mentioning of the application of Section 6 of the said Act only in sub-section (2) of Section 30 of the 1988 Act. Learned counsel appearing for the other respondents made similar submissions to support the impugned judgment in these appeals. Realising that provisions made in the Indian Penal Code were not adequate to meet the exigencies of the time, an imperative need was felt to make a law to eradicate the evil of bribery and corruption for which the 1947 Act was enacted. The said Act was amended twice by Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1952 and later in 1964. Ultimately the said Act was repealed by the 1988 Act being Act No.49 of 1988. The new Act has made the anti corruption law more effective by widening its coverage and by strengthening it ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... -- (a) in the case of the Delhi Special Police Establishment, of an Inspector of Police; (b) in the presidency-towns of Calcutta and Madras, of an Assistant Commissioner of Police; (c) in the presidency-town of Bombay, of a Superintendent of Police; and (d) elsewhere, of a Deputy Superintendent of Police, shall investigate any officer punishable under Section 161, Section 165 or Section 165A of the Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860) or under Section 5 of this Act without the order of a Presidency Magistrate or a Magistrate of the first class, as the case may be, or make any arrest therefor without a warrant: Provided that if a police officer not below the rank of an Inspector of Police is authorised by the State Government in this behalf by general or special order, he may also investigate any such offence without the order of a Presidency Magistrate or a Magistrate of the first class, as the case may be, or make arrest therefor without a warrant: Provided further that an offence referred to in clause (e) of sub-section (1) of section 5 shall not be investigated without the order of a police officer not below the rank of a Superintendent of Police. (2) If, from inf ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... penalty, forfeiture or punishment may be imposed as if the repealing Act or Regulation had not been passed. 24. Continuation of orders, etc., issued under enactments repeated and re-enacted - Where any Central Act or Regulation is, after the commencement of this Act, repealed and re-enacted with or without modification, then unless it is otherwise expressly provided, any appointment, notification, order, scheme, rule, form or bye-law made or issued under the repealed Act or Regulation, shall so far as it is not inconsistent with the provisions re-enacted, continue in force, and be deemed to have been made or issued under the provisions so re-enacted, unless and until it is superseded by any appointment, notification, order, scheme, rule form or bye-law made or issued under the provisions so re-enacted and when any Central Act or Regulation, which, by a notification under Section 5 or 5A of the Scheduled District Act, 1874 (XIV of 1974), or any like law, has been extended to any local area, has, by a subsequent notification, been withdrawn from the re-extended to such area or any part thereof, the provisions of such Act or Regulation shall be deemed to have been repealed and ree ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n to be inconsistent with the provisions of the re-enacted statute. In Neel @ Niranjan Majumdar v. The State of West Bengal [AIR 1972 SC 2066], the petitioner therein had challenged the order of his detention under sub-section (1) read with sub-section (3) of Section 3 of the West Bengal (Prevention of Violent Activities) Act, 1970. Sub-section (1) read with sub-section (3) of Section 3 authorised District Magistrate to direct detention of any person in respect of whom he was satisfied that such detention should be ordered with a view to prevent him from acting prejudicially to the security of the State or the maintenance of public order. Sub-section (2) of Section 3 contained a special definition of the expression acting in any manner prejudicial to the security of the State or the maintenance of public order to mean the acts enumerated in clauses (a) to (e) thereof. Clause (d) provided: (d) committing, or instigating any person to commit, any offence punishable with death or imprisonment for life or imprisonment for a term extending to seven years or more or any offence under the Arms Act, 1959 or the Explosive Substances Act, 1908, where the commission of such offence dist ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... peration of the repealed Act or of a notification issued thereunder was not to continue. Further, the new Act re-enacts the provisions of the earlier Act, and Section 4 in particular, as already stated, has provisions practically identical to those of Section 15 of the earlier Act. The combined effect of Sections 6 and 24 of the General Clauses Act is that the said notification of 1923 issued under Section 15 of the Act of 1878 not only continued to operate but has to be deemed to have been enacted under the new Act. In Central Bureau of Investigation v. Subodh Kumar Dutta Anr. [1997 (10) SCC 567] the cognizance of the offence had been taken by Special Court constituted under the West Bengal Special Courts Act. After cognizance had been taken, the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947 came to be repealed by the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 w.e.f. 9.9.1988. The accused filed a Criminal Revision Petition in the High Court seeking quashing of the proceedings in the case pending against him before the Special Court in which the principal ground raised was the violation of fundamental right of the accused to speedy trial. During the arguments the accused was permitted to raise ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the nature contained in Section 6 in Special Act may modify the position. There is no dispute that when an Act is repealed but re-enacted, it is almost inevitable that there will be some time lag between the re-enacted statute coming into force and regulations being framed under the re-enacted statute. In Chief Inspector of Mines Anr., etc. vs. Karam Chand Thapar, etc. [AIR 1961 SC 838] this Court observed that: However, efficient the rule-making authority may be it is impossible to avoid some hiatus between the coming into force of the re-enacted statute and the simultaneous repeal of the old Act and the making of regulations. Often, the time lag would be considerable. It is conceivable that any legislature, in providing that regulations made under its statute will have effect as if enacted in the Act, could have intended by those words to say that if ever the Act is repealed and reenacted, (as is more than likely to happen sooner or later), the regulations will have no existence for the purpose of the re-enacted statute, and thus the re-enacted statute, for some time at least, will be in many respects, a dead letter. The answer must be in the negative. Whatever the purpose ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rules, bylaws, made or issued under the repealed Act would be deemed to be non-existent making impossible the working of the reenacted law impossible. The provisions of the 1988 Act are required to be understood and interpreted in the light of the provisions of the General Clauses Act including Sections 6 and 24 thereof. There is no substance in the arguments of the learned counsel appearing for the respondents that the provision made in two enactments were inconsistent and sub-section (2) of Section 30 would not save the notifications issued under the 1947 Act. The consistency, referred to in sub-section (2) of Section 30 is with respect to acts done in pursuance of the Repealed Act and thus restricted it to such provision of the Acts which come for interpretation of the court and not the whole of the scheme of the enactment. It has been conceded before us that there is no inconsistency between Section 5A of the 1947 Act and Section 17 of the 1988 Act and provisions of General Clauses Act would be applicable and with the aid of sub-section (2) of Section 30 anything done or any action taken or purported to have been done or taken in pursuance of 1947 Act be deemed to have been ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... y effect cannot be made basis for striking down those notifications . It is, therefore, evident that the notifications issued by the Government of Punjab, in exercise of the powers conferred under Section 5A of the 1947 Act, empowering and authorising the Inspectors of Police posted in Special Inquiry Agency of the Vigilance Department, Govt. of Punjab to investigate the cases registered under the said Act were saved under the saving provision of the re-enacted 1988 Act. Such notifications are not inconsistent with the provisions of re-enacted Act and are deemed to continue in force as having been issued under the re-enacted 1988 Act till the aforesaid notifications are specifically superseded or withdrawn or modified under the 1988 Act. The investigation conducted by the Inspectors of Police authorised in that behalf under the 1947 Act are held to be proper, legal and valid investigation under the re-enacted Act and do not suffer from any vice of illegality or jurisdiction. The High Court committed a mistake of law in holding the aforesaid notifications as not saved under the re-enacted 1988 Act. The quashing of the proceedings on the basis of the First Information Report register ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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