TMI Blog1984 (6) TMI 264X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d of having committed the offence punishable under Section 6 of the Official Secrets Act; 1923 in a complaint, filed by the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Special Branch, Delhi with the authorisation of the Government of India before the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Patiala House, New Delhi. ( 2. ) The prosecution case appears to rest inter alia on the following facts : On 24/03/1983, Group Captain Jasjit Singh informed the Air Vice Marshal (now Air Marshal) Shri S. Raghavendran that for some days immediately prior to that date AVM (Retd.) K. H. Larkins then resident of Azad Apartments, Mebrauli Road. New Delhi, under whom he had served earlier, was inducing him to pass on secret manuals of aircrafts used by the Indian Air- ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... unauthorisedly got issued to him from D. G. I. and EME libraries to which he gained access through the good offices of certain Army officers and by impersonating himself as a serving officer when actually he was retired and that the information contained in these documents and manuals was passed on by him to Major General (Retd.) F. D. Larkins and Jaspal Singh Gill alias Jassi Gill resident of 82, Sunder Nagar, New Delhi, the respondent, who represented a private firm namely, M/s. EMGEE International Pvt. Ltd. and with whom the, Lt. Col. (Retd.), Jasbir Singh, was also working as consultant. On the basis of the said disclosure made by the said Jasbir Singh, the search of the house of Jaspal Singh Gill alias Jassi Gill, the respondent herei ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... before the Sessions Court. Before the said application could be taken up, he made an application under Section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code before the High Court of Delhi for bail. The learned Judge of the High Court who heard the bail application went into the merits of the case and after holding that the material before the Court was insufficient to sustain the conviction of the respondent proceeded to enlarge him on bail subject to his furnishing a personal bond in the sum of ₹ 5,000- with one surety in the like amount. It may be stated here that the very same learned Judge had dismissed earlier the bail application of Jasbir Singh who was the employee of the respondent. Aggrieved by the order of the High Court enlarging the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... cused not being secured at the trial, reasonable apprehension of witnesses being tampered with, the larger interests of the public or the State and similar other considerations. ( 5. ) On going through the order passed by the High Court, I feel that its decision that the material collected by the prosecution and the evidence to be adduced at the trial would not be sufficient to sustain a conviction appears to be a premature one in the circumstances of this case. Since the trial is yet to begin, I do not propose to say anything more at this stage lest it should prejudice either the accused or the prosecution than observing that on a perusal of the complaint and the other material available in the case it cannot reasonably be stated that t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... relied on the decision of this Court in Jagjit Singh's case' (supra), he has not even referred to that decision while granting bail to the respondent on 3/05/1984. Some of the observations made by the High Court against the sustainability of the case of criminal conspiracy alleged by the prosecution at this stage were not called for. The circumstances of this case are such that the question whether the case of criminal conspiracy had been made out or not should have been left to be decided by the trial Court at the end of the trial on a consideration of the entire evidence adduced in the case. ( 6. ) In the circumstances, I am of the view that the High Court should not have enlarged the respondent on bail in the larger interests ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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