Chita Ranjan Sahu vs Dept. Of Personnel
2023 Latest Caselaw 7836 Ori

                  IN THE HIGH COURT OF ORISSA AT CUTTACK
                             W.P.(C) No. 13688 OF 2023

            Chita Ranjan Sahu                       ....        Petitioner(s)
                                                            Mr.R.Roy,Adv.
                                         -versus-

            Dept. of Personnel, Govt. of India,     ....    Opposite Party(s)
            New Delhi and others                          Mr.S.Nayak,Adv.



                        CORAM:
                        JUSTICE BISWANATH RATH
                                        ORDER

Order No.                              20.07.2023
   04.       1.       Heard the submissions of Mr. Roy, learned counsel appearing

for the Petitioner and Mr. Nayak, learned counsel appearing for the C.B.I.

2. This Writ Petition involves an innocuous prayer in as much as return of the original service book to the employer kept in custody of the C.B.I. Court for involvement of a proceeding in T.R. No. 13 of 2013. There is no dispute at Bar that this T.R. No. 13 of 2013 on the file of Special Judge, CBI, Court-II, Bhubaneswar has come to an end by judgment of particular Court dated 24.12.2018 with an order of acquittal in favour of the accused.

3. Mr. Nayak, learned counsel for the C.B.I., however submits that even though a Leave to Appeal has been brought to the this Court in 2019 but there is no admission of the same as of now. Mr. Nayak, learned counsel, however fairly submits that even assuming a leave to Appeal is already filed the document involved can be released but however keeping a copy thereof. Mr. Nayak, learned counsel for the

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C.B.I. also submits that, in fact, the C.B.I. has already applied for a certified copy of the C.B.I., which application is yet to be honoured by the C.B.I. Court.

4. For the settled position of law requiring retention of material object and the document, if any, involving criminal matter possible till the expiry of Appeal period. Undisputedly there is no Appeal in the eye of law as of now. The Appeal since has not been admitted further even the Appeal will be admitted later on, there is no difficulty bringing back the service book of the Petitioner herein on simply putting a notice against the employer in the further proceeding, if any. In the circumstance, this Court finds there is no justification in holding over the service book of the Petitioner, for which this Court directs the trial Court, Special Judge, CBI, Court-II, Bhubaneswar to return the service book involved herein to the employer involved by retaining Xerox copy of the same.

5. With the above observation and direction, this Writ Petition stands disposed of.

(Biswanath Rath) Judge U.Nayak

Signature Not Verified

Signed by: UTKALIKA NAYAK Designation: JUNIOR STENOGRAPHER Reason: Authentication Location: High Court of Orissa Date: 21-Jul-2023 12:57:30