Accused can't be denied fundamental right to keep silent, says court

An accused cannot be denied the fundamental right to keep silent during the process of admission or denial of documents under the provisions of the CrPC, a special court hearing a coal scam case on Friday said. The court's observation came as it disposed of CBI's plea under section 294 CrPC relating to admission or denial of documents by the accused, in the coal scam case in which former Coal Secretary H C Gupta and five others are accused.

It said the accused have chosen to exercise their right to keep silent to participate in the process of admission or denial of genuineness of relied upon documents. The court noted that section 294 CrPC was introduced with a view to cut short the process of trial. "However, every law of the land is and has to be subservient to the Constitution. Thus, the exercise of the fundamental right as available to an accused under Article 20(3) of the Constitution to remain silent cannot be denied," Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar said.

The court said "the principle against self-incrimination remains an important safeguard and it has been accepted in the Constitution as a part of the criminal jurisprudence of the country." "In the present case, the condition precedent which are required for invoking the right available under Article 20(3) of the Constitution are clearly made out and thus without elaborating any further, I am of the considered opinion that accused cannot be denied the right to exercise his right to keep silence when called upon to admit/deny the genuineness of a document under section 294 of the CrPC," the judge said.

The court held that as accused Gupta, two senior public servants, K S Kropha and K C Samria, company M/S Kamal Sponge Steel and Power Ltd (KSSPL), its managing director Pawan Kumar Ahluwalia and chartered accountant Amit Goyal have chosen to exercise their right to keep silent. So they cannot be called upon to admit or deny the genuineness of documents, it held. The court has fixed December 10 for commencement of trial in the case pertaining to alleged irregularities in allocation of a coal block to KSSPL in Madhya Pradesh. 

The submission of the accused to remain silent was opposed by senior public prosecutors V K Sharma and A P Singh who said the only option available to them was either to admit or deny the genuineness of any document and such a right to maintain silence was not available to them. The court had earlier framed charges against six accused in the case pertaining to alleged irregularities in allocation of Thesgora-B Rudrapuri coal block in Madhya Pradesh to KSSPL.

It had put these accused on trial after framing charges for alleged offences under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) read with 420 (cheating), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant) of IPC and under relevant provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act. Kropha was Joint Secretary in Ministry of Coal (MoC), while Samria was Director (Coal Allocation-I section) in MoC at the time of allocation of the block.

The court had on October 13 last year summoned them as accused after refusing to accept CBI's closure report. The accused were earlier granted bail by the court. CBI had lodged an FIR against KSSPL, its officials and other unknown persons for alleged misrepresentation of facts, including inflated net worth, to acquire the coal block.