Cyriac Joseph JUDGMENT
S.B. Sinha, J.
1. Leave granted.
2. Appellant is before us being aggrieved by and dissatisfied with a judgment and order dated 12.01.2006 passed by a learned Single Judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court allowing the criminal revision applications filed by the respondents herein arising out of the orders dated 21.12.1998 and 13.05.1997 passed by the Special Judge, Bhopal in Special Case No. 6 of 1997.
3. The respondents herein were proceeded against for commission of offences under Section 13(1)(d)(2)(ii-iii) read with Section 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (for short "the Act") and Section 120B of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.
4. Before proceeding further, we may notice the positions held by the respondents herein. Respondent No. 1 Sheetla Sahai was Minister for Water Resources of the State of Madhya Pradesh. Respondent No. 2 D.V.S.R. Sarma and the respondent No. 7 S. W. Mohgoankar were the Secretary to the Government of Madhya Pradesh. Respondent No. 3 P.V. Srinivasaiyah was the Engineer-in-Chief and the respondent No. 4 A.S. Laxminarsimhaiya was the Deputy Secretary in the Government of Madhya Pradesh. Respondent No. 5 V.R.B. Gopal and the respondent No. 6 M.N. Nadkarni were the Chief Engineers, Hasdeo Bango Project. Respondent No. 11 R.P. Khare was the Secretary, Control Board for Major Projects.
5. Appellant under the aegies of the World Bank undertook construction of the Hasdeo Bango Masonry dam project. For the aforementioned purpose, the respondent Nos. 8, 9 and 10 herein, viz., M/s Progressive Constructions Pvt. Ltd., M/s Prasad & Company, M/s SEW Construction Co. (hereinafter referred to as "the contractors") were awarded contracts in terms whereof they were required to excavate stones etc. from Therma Pahar Quarry, which was situate at only 12 kms. away from the site, for use of the stone to be extracted therefrom for construction of masonry spillway.
6. One of the terms of the said contract is as under:
...The tenderer should satisfy himself regarding availability of the required quality and quantity of the materials, if any quarry is changed for any reason whatsoever, no claim shall be entertained on this account.
In addition to the guidelines, a plan was also supplied to the contractors containing the following note:
the contractor shall extract materials from the approved sources and quarry areas to be designated by the engineer-in-charge for their particular contract group. They shall have no claim for any material collected elsewhere without having obtained the prior approval in writing of the engineer in charge. Such material shall become the property of the department unless approval to use the same is subsequently accorded by the engineer-in-charge, in which case, however, the contractor shall not be entitled for any extra rate or lead.
7. However, on the premise that whereas eight lakh cubic meters of stones of the requisite specification were required for masonry work, only one lakh cub........