IN RE: T.N. GODAVARMAN THIRUMULPAD versus UNION OF INDIA AND OTHERS
Read judgmentOriginal SCR text
[2025] 11 S.C.R. 1424 : 2025 INSC 1344
In Re: T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad v. Union of India and Others
(I.A. No(s). 20650 and 75033 of 2023 With I.A. No. 199355 of 2024 In Writ Petition (C) No. 202 of 1995 With Transferred Case (Criminal) No. 2 of 2025)
11 November 2025
[B.R. Gavai,* CJI, K. Vinod Chandran and N.V. Anjaria, JJ.]
Issue for Consideration
Issue arose whether it was appropriate on part of the then Director Corbett Tiger Reserve to approach the High Court to challenge the sanction order when the same had been granted in the proceedings pending before this Court.
Headnotes
Constitution of India – Jurisdiction of High Court to entertain petitions in proceedings pending before this Court – Suo Moto action pertaining to the illegal construction and rampant felling of trees in the Corbett Tiger Reserve – Investigation by CBI – State granted sanction in respect of all erring officers except one, the then Director Corbett Tiger Reserve-IFS officer – However, the State granted sanction in respect of the Director pursuant to the oral observations made by this Court – Subsequently, while the matter was listed before this Court, it was brought to the notice of the Court that the Director has challenged the said sanction order before the High Court and the High Court granted stay to the proceedings against him – This Court deeply perturbed by the approach of the High Court entertaining a petition, when the matter is pending before this Court, directed that the proceedings pending before the High Court are withdrawn and transferred to this Court forthwith and also issued contempt notice to the then Director – Propriety of:
Held: When the sanction order was passed during the pendency of these proceedings before this Court, and in pursuance of the series of orders passed in the present proceedings, it was not appropriate on the part of the then Director Corbett Tiger Reserve to have approached the High Court – If he was of the opinion that on account of any of the observations made in the orders passed by this Court, his rights were being prejudiced, then nothing prevented him from approaching this Court to seek appropriate order – Director tendered unconditional apology – It appears that on account of not getting appropriate legal advice, he took a wrong step of approaching the High Court when the issue was pending before this Court – High Court, at least, ought to have perused the sanction order in which a reference has been made by the State Government to various orders passed by this Court – Time and again it is stated that the High Courts are not inferior to the Supreme Court – However, as and when, on the judicial side, the Supreme Court is seized of a matter, the High Court is expected to give due respect to the proceedings pending before this Court – In the teeth of the observations made in the sanction order referring to the various orders passed by this Court, the High Court ought not to have entertained the writ petition and passed interim orders – Unconditional apology tendered by the Director accepted and is discharged of the notice of contempt issued to him – Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. [Paras 11, 14, 16]
List of Acts
Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973; Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988; Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023.
List of Keywords
Contempt of Court; Grant of Sanction; Jurisdiction of High Court to entertain petitions in proceedings pending before this Court; Corbett Tiger Reserve; Unconditional apology; Illegal construction and rampant felling of trees.
Case Arising From
CIVIL/CRIMINAL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION: I.A. No(s). 20650 and 75033 of 2023
With
I.A. No. 199355 of 2024
In
Writ Petition (C) No. 202 of 1995
Under Article 32 of the Constitution of India
With
Transferred Case (Criminal) No. 2 of 2025
Appearances for Parties
Petitioner-in-person.
K. Parameshwar, Sr. Adv., Mukunda, Ms. Kanti, Shreenivas Patil, Ms. Raji Gururaj, S. Guru Krishna Kumar, Ms. Anitha Shenoy, Amici Curiae.
Advs. for the Petitioner(s):
Yashraj Singh Deora, Sr. Adv., Chanchal Kumar Ganguli, M/s PLR Chambers And Co., Syed Mehdi Imam, Mohd Parvez Dabas, Uzmi Jamil Husain, T. Harish Kumar, Ms. Anupama Dhurve, Priyesh Mohan Srivastava, Sriram Krishna, M/s Mitter & Mitter Co., M/s Lawyer S Knit & Co, Manan Verma.
Advs. for the Respondent(s):
Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General, Mrs. Aishwarya Bhati, Mrs. Archana Pathak Dave, K. M. Nataraj, Balbir Singh, A.S.Gs., Lokesh Sinhal, Sr. A.A.G. Aman Panwar, Ms. B.K. Satija, Ms. Karishma Malani, Shiv Mangal Sharma, Rakesh Kumar Mudgal, A.A.Gs., Amit Kumar, Sr. Adv./Advocate General, Ms. Ruchi Kohli, Atmaram S Nandkarini, Dr. Monika Gusain, Ms. Madhavi Divan, Maninder Singh, Ravindra Kumar, Narender Hooda, R. Basant, Tanvir Ahmed Mir, Sanjay Upadhyay, Sanjiv Sen, Ravindra Kumar, Sanjeev Dubey, Yashraj Singh Deora, Shekhar G Devasa, J.K. Birla, Sr. Advs., Gurmeet Singh Makker, Ms. Suhasini Sen, Gaurang Bhushan, Baij Nath Patel, Rohan Gupta, Gaichangpou Gangmei, Maitreya Mahaley, Yimyanger Longkumer, Kamei Bestman Kabui, Raj Kishor Choudhary, Shakeel Ahmed, Vikram Patralekh, Ms. Pratibha Singh, Ms. Shalini Tripathi, Nakul Chaudhary, Himanshu Gupta Is, Shuvodeep Roy, Deepayan Dutta, Saurabh Tripathi, Ms. Charu Mathur, A. Venayagam Balan, Sudarsh Menon, Ms. Usha Rani Pradhan, Ramesh Babu M. R., Vikrant Singh Bais, Shiva Pujan Singh, Ms. K. V. Bharathi Upadhyaya, Rajiv Mehta, Ejaz Maqbool, Rajesh, M/s Corporate Law Group, Lakshmi Raman Singh, B V Deepak, T. N. Singh, C. L. Sahu, Ms. Sumita Hazarika, Ms. Kalpana K Tripathy, Prakhar Gupta, Ms. Abha R. Sharma, Abhishek Chaudhary, Rajesh Singh, Hitesh Kumar Sharma, Amit Kumar Chawla, Mahi Pal Singh, Rajesh Singh, Akhileshwar Jha, Varun Varma, Narendra Pal Sharma, Chaman Sharma, Saurabh Kumar Solanki, Ms. Manisha Chawla, Ms. Niharika Dwivedi, Ms. Gurjinder Kaur, Shubham Rajhans, Ishank Ranjan, Prakhar Shukla, Ms. Shreya Jha, Ms. Aushi, Supriya, Ms. Swati Vishan, Mrs. Rekha Pandey, Gopal Singh, T. V. George, Krishnanand Pandeya, Neeraj Shekhar, Rajesh Maurya, Mrs. Kshama Sharma, Ujjwal Ashutosh, Ms. Asha Gopalan Nair, Shashikant Pralhad Chaudhari, Himanshu Shekhar, Parth Shekhar, Shubham Singh, Youkteshwari Prasad, Ms. Ambali Vedasen, Mukesh Kumar Verma, Arvind Kumar Tomar, Rayi Peddi Raju, Rajat Sinha Roy, Mayur Raj, Nikhil Kumar, Shalini Satyanarayan, Soumydeep Chatterjee, Darshan Chandrakant Siddarkar, Vijay Singh, Ms. Hemantika Wahi, Mohd. Irshad Hanif, Ms. Rifat Ara Butt, Punit Dutt Tyagi, Rathin Das, Ratan Kumar Choudhuri, Sudhir Kulshreshtha, E. M. S. Anam, Ms. Sushma Suri, Sudhir Kumar Gupta, A. N. Arora, Irshad Ahmad, G. Prakash, Mrs. Bina Gupta, P. V. Yogeswaran, Jitendra Mohan Sharma, Ms. Malini Poduval, Ms. C. K. Sucharita, Ms. Binu Tamta, Shibashish Misra, Pankaj Kumar Singh, Pawan Kumar Shukla, Ms. Himani Choudhary, Ms. Archla, K. L. Janjani, Naresh K. Sharma, Ms. A. Sumathi, Ms. Prasanthi@ Bharathi, Jai Prakash Pandey, Mrs. Anjani Aiyagari, K. V. Vijayakumar, Mrs. Rani Chhabra, Ms. Divya Roy, Tarun Johri, Radha Shyam Jena, Ajit Pudussery, Ashok Mathur, Ms. Manpreet Kaur, M/s Parekh & Co., M/s K J John And Co, V. Balachandran, S. C. Birla, Subrat Birla, Shailender Mishra, Ram Swarup Sharma, T. Mahipal, Umesh Bhagwat, Mrs. M. Qamaruddin, H. S. Parihar, Ms. Baby Krishnan, P. R. Ramasesh, Rakesh K. Sharma, P. N. Gupta, Sarad Kumar Singhania, E. C. Agrawala, Kuldip Singh, Ms. Bina Madhavan, Ms. Pratibha Jain, Rajat Joseph, Gopal Prasad, Ms. Jyoti Mendiratta, S. Udaya Kumar Sagar, Ranjan Mukherjee, Ms. Sharmila Upadhyay, Sarvjit Pratap Singh, Tejaswi Kumar Pradhan, Pranab Samantaray, Manoranjan Paikaray, Pradeep Kar, M/s Arputham Aruna And Co, Mrs. Nandini Gore, Raj Kumar Mehta, Ms. Madhu Moolchandani, Mrs. B. Sunita Rao, Rajeev Singh, Mrs. Kanchan Kaur Dhodi, Surya Kant, Hemant Kumar Sagar, Subhash Chandra Sagar, E. C. Vidya Sagar, M/s M. V. Kini & Associates, Mrs. Manik Karanjawala, Kamal Mohan Gupta, Prashant Kumar, Dharmendra Kumar Sinha, Umesh Babu Chaurasia, P. Parmeswaran, Ms. Sujata Kurdukar, M. Yogesh Kanna, Vikash Singh, Naveen Kumar, P. K. Manohar, Vinod Sharma, Ms. Surbhi Mehta, Rajeev Singh, Ms. Parul Shukla, Saday Mondol, Ms. Shubhangi Pandey, Abhishek Pandey, Prashant Kumar Umrao, Arun K. Sinha, Ms. Patil Rekha Chandra Gouda, Ms. Sakshi Kakkar, Shakti Singh, Hitanshu Kaushal, Sanchit Garga, Kunal Rana, Shashwat Jaiswal, Salvador Santosh Rebello, Jaskirat Pal Singh, Ms. Kritika, Ms. Moulishree Pathak, Ms. Ngacheitharin Chiphang, Utsav Tarsolia, B. K. Pal, James P. Thomas, S. Gowthaman, A. Karthik, Rajiv Kumar Choudhry, Anurag Tandon, Akshay Amritanshu, Madhav Sinhal, Rahul Khurana, Nikunj Gupta, Ms. Drishti Rawal, Ms. Aakansha, Ms. Ishika Gupta, Sarthak Srivastava, Mayur Goyal, Ms. Seema Sindhu, Ms. Kirti, Sarthak Arya, Abhishek Chand, Omanakuttan K. K., Ajit Sharma, Avijit Roy, D. L. Chidananda, Ms. Shalini Kaul, Sunil Kumar Sharma, Ms. Swati Ghildiyal, Ms. Neha Singh, Siddharth Sharma, Raj Bahadur Yadav, Gaurang Bhushan, Ms. Suhasini Sen, Baijnath Patel, Uday Prakash Yadav, Samir Ali Khan, Pranjal Sharma, Md. Arshad, Ms. Eksha Sharma, Sachin Jaysing Patil, Geo Joseph, Risvi Muhammed, Sachin Patil, Nishant Awana, Rajiv Shankar Dvivedi, Sameer Singh, S.K. Sarkar, Bhushan, Ms. Priya, Ms. Snigdha Singh, Ms. Sweta Singh, Shubhranshu Padhi, Nishe Rajen Shonker, Mrs. Anu K Joy, Alim Anvar, Santhosh K, Mrs. Devika A.L., Nishit Agrawal, Shrey Kapoor, Ms. Kanishka Mittal, Krishna Ballabh Thakur, Ms. Nina Nariman, Ms. Aruna Gupta, Ramesh Allanki, Syed Ahmad Naqvi, Ramchander Goud Vangala, Francis Joseph Clement, Yash Gupta, Suryakjala Mummana, Mamatha Ralla, Nandita Biswas, Ms. K. Enatoli Sema, Amit Kumar Singh, Ms. Chubalemla Chang, Prang Newmai, Ms. Yanmi Phazang, Shishir Deshpande, Yusuf, Agam Sharma, Fuzail Ahmad Ayyubi, Mustafa Khaddam Hussain, Ibad Mushtaq, Ms. Akanksha Rai, Ms. Gurneet Kaur, Hasan Raza Khan, Mrs. Pragya Baghel, Ms. Deepanwita Priyanka, Satyalipsu Ray, Deepak Singh, Shishir Kumar Jha, Ms. Priyal Sheth, Raghvendra Kumar, Sravan Kumar Karanam, P. Venkatraju, Ms. M. Harshini, Anant Mann, Lakshmeesh S. Kamath, Mrs. Samriti Ahuja, Ms. Aditi Prakash, Vikas Kumar, Kedar R Seludkar, Ms. Samiksha Jain, Karan Gulwade, Ms. Vidhanshi Kamalia, Gaurav Khanna, Gopal Balwant Sathe, Sarvam Ritam Khare, Kushagra Sharma, Anuj Agarwal, Akarsh Khare, Harish Pandey, Ms. Indira Bhakar, Anuj Srinivas Udupa, Krishna Kant Dubey, Piyush Beriwal, Neeraj Kumar Sharma, Ms. Mrinal Elker Mazumdar, Shashwat Parihar, Mukesh K Verma, Vinayak Sharma, Santosh Ramdurg, Shreekant Neelappa Terdal, Ms. Sunieta Ojha, Dinesh Chandra Pandey, Saurabh Rajpal, Himinder Lal, Rakesh Kumar, Dr. Chidanand P. Mansur, Mrs. Meena Sehrawat, Ms. Shruti Jose, Durgesh Ramchandra Gupta, Miss Rangoli Seth, Kaushik Choudhury, Aravindh S., Ms. Gulshan Jahan, Ms. Jyotika Sharma, Mrs. Kirti Renu Mishra, Atul Sharma, Anirudh Sanganeria, Chinmay Deshpande, Shrey Kapoor, Nishit Agrawal, Ms. Anne Mathew, Yash S. Vijay, Adarsh Kumar Tiwari, Sarvan Shukla, Ms. Vartika Maurya, Ms. Ritwika Nanda, M/s Trust Legal, Abhishek Atrey, Dr. Abhishek Atrey, Ms. Ishita Bist, Ms. Ambika Atrey, Navneet Gupta, Ms. Mrinal Gopal Elker, Mukesh Kumar Verma, Dhaval Mehrotra, Binay Kumar Das, Ms. Priyanka Das, Ms. Neha Das, Shivam Saksena, Vikas Bharti, Ms. Lakshmi N. Kaimal, Subhasish Mohanty, Mr Rahul Jain, Sabarish Subramanian, M/s Karanjawala & Co., M/s Khaitan & Co., Naveen Kumar, V. N. Raghupathy, M/s D.S.K. Legal, Ms. Shibani Ghosh, Chandra Bhushan Prasad, Saurabh Rajpal, Amogh Bansal, Ms. Nidhi Jaswal, Ms. Pallavi Langar, Rajeev Kumar Dubey, Rajeev Maheshwaranand Roy, Vaibhav Niti, M/s Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, Sandeep Kumar Jha, Milind Kumar, Mohit Paul, Ms. Rashmi Nandakumar, Ms. Manika Tripathy, Ms. Ankita Sharma, Arjun D Singh, Ms. Ishika Neogi, Ms. Supreeta Sharanagouda, Sharanagouda Patil, Mrs. Supreeta Sharanagouda, Yash S Tiwari, Ms. Ranu Purohit, Ms. Dharitry Phookan, Ms. Adarsh Nain, Guntur Pramod Kumar, Gaurang Bhushan, Baijnath Patel, Amrish Kumar, Ms. Shivika Mehra, Ms. Seema Bengani, Arvind Kumar Sharma, Ms. Purnima Krishna, M. F. Philip, Karamveer Singh Yadav, Togin M. Babichen, Mukesh Kumar Maroria, Jagdish Chandra Solanki, Suhasini Sen, Gaurang Bhushan, K. S. Rupal, Raman Walia, Ms. Pallvi Hooda, Shiv Bhatnagar, Yuvraj Anandal, Ms. Kavya Manuja, Ms. Tannu, Dr. Surender Singh Hooda, Sunil Kumar Verma, Prakash Kumar Singh, Ms. Tanya Srivastava, Aniteja Sharma, Ms. Seita Vaidyalingam, Anando Mukherjee, Shwetank Singh, Utkarsh Anand, Ms. Anzu. K. Varkey, Ms. Astha Sharma, T. R. B. Sivakumar, Sujit Kumar Mishra, Aldanish Rein, Kunal Mimani, Ms. Shraddha Chirania, Shantanu Kumar, Manan Verma, Ekansh Mishra, Nishanth Patil, M/s Venkat Palwai Law Associates, Ajay Marwah, Ravindra S. Garia, Shashank Singh, Karan Sharma, Ms. Sugandha Anand, Avijit Mani Tripathi, Deeptakirti Verma, Ms. Usha Nandini V., Avneesh Arputham, Prasenjit Keswani, Dr. Arvind S. Avhad, Rishabh Singh, Ms. Vanshaja Shukla, Chirag M. Shroff, Ms. Mayuri Raghuvanshi, Vivek Jain, Abhishek Saket, Sudeep Kumar, Ms. Manisha, Ms. Rupali, Ms. Rani Mishra, Pukhrambam Ramesh Kumar, Karun Sharma, Ms. Anupama Ngangom, Ms. Rajkumari Divyasana, Venkata Raghuvamsy D., Ms. Swathi H. Prasad, Adeel Ahmed, Mrs. Sumita Ray, Ms. Disha Ray, Anurag Kumar, Kunal Narwal, Ms. Vanshika Singh, Ajay Agarwal, Rajeev Kumar Dubey, Ashiwan Mishra, Ms. Aditi Mishra, Kamlendra Mishra, Somesh Chandra Jha, Ms. Ruchira Goel, Siddharth Dharmadhikari, Aaditya Aniruddha Pande, Shrirang B. Varma, Bharat Bagla, Sourav Singh, Aditya Krishna, Adarsh Dubey, Ms. Chitransha Singh Sikarwar, Parth Awasthi, Pashupathi Nath Razdan, Ms. Maitreyee Jagat Joshi, Astik Gupta, Ms. Akanksha Tomar, Rahul, Tarun Gupta, Hirday Virdi, Ms. Soumya Nagpal, Sidhant Ranta, Sameer Abhyankar, Krishna Rastogi, Aryan Srivastava, Ms. Ranjeeta Rohatgi, Shubham Upadhyay, Surya Gupta, Ms. Anukriti Bajpai, Vivek Gupta, Ms. Tanu Priya Gupta, Ms. Khushi Sharma, P. S. Sudheer, Sunny Choudhary, Siddhartha Jha, Dr. Amardeep Gaur, Naved Anwar, Vishvajeet Vijaykumar Shinde, Vinay Kumar Sah, Ms. Sonia Sharma, Jazib Siddiqui, S. Krishnamurthy, K. Kumaravadivel, M/s V. Maheshwari & Co., Mayank Aggarwal, Sanjeev Kumar, Shovan Mishra, Ms. Bipasa Tripathy, Shlok Luthra, Ashutosh Kumar Sharma, Ms. Suman Kukrety, Suhashini Sen, 20 Shyam Gopal, Raghav Sharma, Raman Yadav, Sunanda Shukla, Dr. N. Visakamurthy, Pawanshree Agrawal, Dr. Surender Singh Hooda, M/S. Parekh & Co., T. L. Garg, Shiv Prakash Pandey, Pranaya Kumar Mohapatra, Ashwani Kumar, Mrs. Rachana Joshi Issar, Harish Pandey, V. K. Verma, Prashant Chaudhary, Mrs. Rekha Pandey, Pravir Choudhary, Mrs. Geeta Rani, Reepak Kansal, Ms. Ruhi Gupta, Navdeep Garg, Dushyant Sharma, Abhishek Gaur, Lalit Bhargav, Prabhu Vashishth, Ms. Pooja Singh, Nikilesh Ramachandran, Ms. Prerna Mehta, Sunil Kumar Jain, Ravi Kumar Tomar, Gurmeet Singh Makker, Mukesh Verma - A, Bhuvan Kapoor, Raman Yadav, Shantnu Sharma, Ms. Chitrangda Rastravara, Rohan Gupta, Tejaswi Kumar Pradhan, Manoranjan Paikaray, Pranab Kumar Samantray, Pradeep Kar, P. Parmeswaran, Gunnam Venkateswara Rao, Abhay Kumar, Ms. Diva Singh, Devendra Singh, Avinash Poddar, Ankit, Bhupender Yadav, Karan Thakur, Swagat Nanda, Ms. Deep Shikha Bharati, A. Venayagam Balan, Praveen Swarup, Praveen Swarup, Rohit Swarup, Devesh Maurya, Ravi Kumar, Ms. Sheetal Kandpal, Manish Dhingra, Ms. Binu Tamta, Shekhar Kumar, Mrs. Anil Katiyar, Ms. Anu Gupta, Ms. Manju Jetley, Ms. Sharmila Upadhyay, Pawan R Upadhyay, Sarvjit Pratap Singh, Satish Aggarwal, Satyendra Kumar, Ajit Sharma, Suresh Chandra Tripathy, Md. Farman, Ms. Ruby Singh Ahuja, Sudhir Naagar, Venkateswara Rao Anumolu, Abhijit Sengupta, Paras Chauhan, N.maylsamy, Ms. Kuheli Mitra, Balmiki Prasad, Birendra Kumar, Neeraj Kumar Gupta, Tarun Johri, Avinash Kr. Lakhanpal, Sanjay Kapur, Ms. Rukhsana Choudhury, Harsh V. Surana, Raj Kamal, Rakesh Kumar, Dr. Chidanand P. Mansur, Mrs. Meena Sehrawat, Himinder Lal, Umesh Kumar Khaitan, Ms. Vanita Bhargava, Amit Kumar Singh, Ms. K. Enatoli Sema, Ms. Chubalemla Chang, Prang Newmai, Anando Mukherjee, Akshay Amritanshu, Rahul Khurana, Nikunj Gupta, Ms. Aakanksha, Ms. Ishika Gupta, Sarthak Arya, Ms. Drishti Rawal, Sarthak Srivastava, Mayur Goyal, Ms. Richa Verma, Ms. Seema Sindhu, Ms. Kirti, Abhishek Chand, Deepak Vashisht, T. Mahipal, Rajat Joseph, Gaurav Goel, Kamal Mohan Gupta, Sunny Choudhary, D. K. Devesh, Kailas Bajirao Autade, Anand Varma, Arvind Kumar Sharma, S. S. Shroff, Ms. Firdouse Qutb Wani, Krishnanand Pandeya, Ms. Neha Sharma, Smarhar Singh, Ms. Shweta Kumari, Dhananjaya Kumar Tyagi, Mohd Asim, Pankaj Prakash, Manoj Kumar, Jai Krishna Singh, Abhinav Agrawal, Avadh Bihari Kaushik, Shekhar Prit Jha, Rameshwar Prasad Goyal, Prithu Garg, Somnath Mukherjee, Ms. Mayuri Raghuvanshi, Vyom Raghuvanshi, Shubham Upadhyay, Surya Gupta, Saurabh Mishra, Siddhartha Chowdhury, Sanjeev Malhotra, Amarjit Singh Bedi, Vishnu Sharma, Mrs. Anupama Sharma, Amar Jyoti Sharma, Ms. Pragya Malik, Ms. Parinita Sehrawat, Kartikeya Chaudhary, Ganesh Kumar Malviya, Mrs. Gargi Khanna, Binay Kumar Das, Ms. Priyanka Das, Ms. Neha Das, Shivam Saksena, Vikas Bharti, Guntur Pramod Kumar, Abinash Kumar Mishra, Ms. Nidhi Mohan Parashar, Purna Chandra Patnaik, Ramesh Kumar Mishra, Arvind Gupta, Vivek Narayan Sharma, Mrs. Mahima Bhardwaj Kalucha, Akash Singh, Shubham Awasthi, Rajeev Kumar Jha, Ms. Madhu Sikri, Sharkh Khan, K. V. Mohan, Ms. Tanya Verma, Arjun Garg, Shrey Kapoor, Vivek Gupta, Karunakar Mahalik, Yoginder Handoo, Dr. Arvind S. Avhad, Rishabh Singh, Ms. Binu Tamta, Mrs. Rani Chhabra, Vishnu Kant, V. N. Raghupathy, E. C. Agrawala, A. Raghunath, Prakash Ranjan Nayak, Tejaswi Kumar Pradhan, Manoranjan Paikaray, Pranab Kumar Samantray, Pradeep Kar, Ambhoj Kumar Sinha, T. V. George, Ms. Smita Maan, Tarun Gupta, Hirday Virdi, Ms. Soumya Nagpal, Sidhant Ranta, Abhinav Shrivastava, Ms. Gauraan, Prashant Bhushan, Alok Gupta, Ms. Sharmila Upadhyay, Pawan R Upadhyay, Sarvjit Pratap Singh, R. C. Kohli, Ms. Anupama Dhurve, Priyesh Mohan Srivastava, Sriram Krishna, M/s Mitter & Mitter Co., Bimlesh Kumar Singh, Samar Vijay Singh, Ms. Sabarni Som, Aman Dev Sharma, Ms. Veena Bansal, Gaj Singh, Ms. Shruti Tripathi, Ms. Srishti Agnihotri, Ashwin K, Vishesh Goel, Ms. Sadhana Madhavan, Ms. Kavana Rao, D. P. Singh, Ms. Tara Elizabeth Kurien, Ms. Anchal Kanthed, Ms. Pallavi Tayal, Vivek Narayan Sharma, Mrs. Mahima Bhardwaj Kalucha, Akash Singh, Shubham Awasthi, Rajeev Kumar Jha, Vinayak Sharma, Ravinder Kumar Yadav, Yashwardhan Shah, M/s Unuc Legal Llp, Mrs. Sharmila Upadhyay, Sarvjit Pratap Singh, Pawan R Upadhyay, D S Mehra, Kiran Kumar Patra, Preetish Sahu, Rajesh Kumar Chaurasia, Ms. Richa Kapoor, Akshay Verma, Ms. Malvika Kapila, M/s Karanjawala & Co., Anand Mishra, Dinesh Chandra Pandey, Raj Bahadur Yadav, Dr. Surender Singh Hooda, Shantanu Krishna, Ekansh Mishra, Mukesh Kumar Maroria, Jagdish Chandra, Rajesh Kumar Singh, Rajat Nair, Ms. Suhasini Sen, Navnajay Mahapatra, T. S. Sabarish, Madhav Sinhal, Ms. Sunanda Shukla, A. Sirajudeen, P. V. Yogeswaran, Sharath Nambiar, Ms. Shradha Deshmukh, Chitransh Sharma, Sarthak Karol, Manish, Kailash Prashad Pandey, Varun Varma, Hitesh Kumar Sharma, Amit Kumar Chawla, Sandeep Singh Dingra, Dinesh Kumar Mudgal, Akhileshwar Jha, Ms. Shreya Jha, Jatin Malik, Abhishek Sachdeva, Manaj Sarkar, Ishank Ranjan, Prakhar Shukla, Rajesh Singh, Javed Raza, Chaman Sharma, Narendra Pal Sharma, Saurabh Kumar Solanki, Supriya, Ms. Manisha Chawla, Ms. Niharika Dwivedi, Ms. Aushi, Avnish Sharma, Devendra Kumar Mishra, Anupam Kumar, Lalit Dixit, Ashok Anand, Ejaz Maqbool, Chanchal Kumar Ganguli, Haresh Raichura, Mrs. Saroj Raichura, Ms. Shagun Matta, Samir Malik, Krishna Pal Singh, Rajesh Kr. Singh, Rajat Nair, Navanjay Mahapatra, Ms. Suhasini Sain, Annirudh Sharma-II, Sabarish Subramanian, Sudarshan Lamba, Ilin Saraswat, Ms. Ilma Saifi, Mrs. Anita Rani Sharma, Mrs. Poonam Seth, M. M. Kashyap, Ms. K. V. Bharathi Upadhyaya, Ms. Rooh-e-hina Dua, Ms. Anuradha Mutatkar, Chirag M. Shroff, Shyam D. Nandan, Mrs. Priya Puri, Rakesh Mishra, Amit Upreti, Ms. Sakshi Tiwari, Awadhesh Kumar, Umesh Kumar Pal, Milind Kumar, Saeed Qadri, Saahil Gupta, Danish Ali, Ms. Radha Meena, Aaman, Ms. Udita Singh, Manoj K. Mishra, Umesh Dubey, Ms. Madhulika, Anand Kumar Rai, Radeesh Kumar Mt, Amulya Dev Mishra, Mrs. Suhasini Sen, Rajesh Kumar Singh, Rajat Nair, T S Sabarish, Navanjay Mahapatra, Annirudh Sharma - II, Amrish Kumar, Ms. Supriya Juneja, Anand Shankar, Zeeshan Diwan, Abhas Kumar, M/s M. V. Kini & Associates, Rajivkumar, Ajay Pal, M/s Devasa & Co., Manish Tiwari, Mrs. Thashmitha Muthanna, Shashi Bhushan Nagar, Ms. Astha Sharma, Suhashini Sen, Rajat Nair, B.k.satija, Shagun Thakur, Chitrangda Rastravara, Chinmayee Chandra, Dr. N. Visakamurthy, Ajay Vikram Singh, Mrs. Priyanka Singh, M Aamir Faiyaz, Ms. Anushka Rajora, Ajay Kumar Singh, Ms. Akriti Chaubey, Ms. Pratibha Jain, Ms. B. Vijayalakshmi Menon, Nishit Agrawal, Ms. Rakhi Ray, Ms. Manika Tripathy, Mayank Aggarwal, Jasmeet Singh, Rahul Narayan, Dhananjay Garg, Abhishek Garg, Praveen Bajaj, Chaudhary Shamsuddin Khan, D. K. Garg, Harsh Meheta, Rishabh Sancheti, Ms. Padma Priya, Nishant Kumar, K. Paarivendhan.
Applicant-in-person.
Intervenor-in-person.
Judgment / Order of the Supreme Court
Judgment
1. These proceedings arise out of unfortunate circumstances.
2. This Court, for almost a period of the last two years has been seized of a Suo Moto action pertaining to the illegal construction and rampant felling of trees in the Corbett Tiger Reserve and has been passing orders from time to time.
3. Prior to this Court taking cognizance of the matter, the High Court of Uttarakhand had directed an investigation to be carried out by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Thereafter, since this Court took cognizance of the matter, the CBI had parallelly conducted the investigation. The investigation, as conducted by the CBI, was monitored by this Court and various orders were passed to that effect from time to time.
4. It will be relevant to refer to the order dated 23rd July 2024 passed by this Court, which reads thus:
“[ 9 ] I.A. NO. 20650 OF 2023 (CEC REPORT NO. 3/2023 - REPORT OF CEC IN APPLN. NO. 1558/2021 FILED BEFORE IT BY GAURAV KUMAR BANSAL) WITH I.A. NO. 75033 OF 2023 IN RE : GAURAV KUMAR BANSAL
1. In pursuance of our orders dated 06.03.2024, a Status Report has been filed by the State of Uttrakhand pointing out various actions taken against the officers of the Forest Department. Learned counsel appearing for the State of Uttrakhand seeks three months’ time for filing a further affidavit. Time as prayed for is granted.
2. The Inspector General of Forest (Wildlife), Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Wildlife Division), has also sent a communication dated 20.07.2024 to Shri K. Parameshwar, learned Amicus Curiae, pointing out various steps taken in pursuance of the aforesaid order with regard to finalization of the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for tiger projects/wildlife sanctuaries, the same is taken on record. It has been requested in the said communication to grant eight more weeks for submission of final report. Time as prayed for is granted.
3. The CBI also filed its status report, in pursuance of the directions issued by this Court on 06.03.2024. The same is taken on record and be resealed and kept in safe custody. As requested in the said Report, a further time of six months’ is granted to complete the investigation. However, the CBI also shall file a further Status Report after a period of three months.
4. List after three months.”
5. Thereafter, another status report came to be filed by the CBI before this Court on 16th October 2024. The matter was thereafter listed on 20th November 2024. On the said date, this Court passed the following order:
“[8] I.A. NO. 20650 OF 2023 (CEC REPORT NO. 3/2023 - REPORT OF CEC WITH I.A. NO. 75033 OF 2023:
1. We have perused the report of the Superintendent of Police, Central Bureau of Investigation dated 16.10.2024.
2. We are satisfied with the progress of the investigation.
3. The report is directed to be kept again in sealed cover.
4. The CBI is directed to submit its further report after a period of three months from today.
5. List on 19.03.2025.
6. The State is also at liberty to file reply within two weeks from today.”
6. Subsequently, again when the matter was listed on 16th January 2025, this Court again granted time to the CBI to file a report of further investigation carried out. The CBI filed its 3rd status report stating therein that investigation is complete. This Court, thereafter, passed the following order dated 19th March 2025:
“[7] IA No. 20650 of 2023 AND I.A. No. 75033 of 2023 AND I.A. No. 199355 of 2024:
1. With regard to the departmental proceedings against the officers involved in illegal construction in the Corbett Tiger Reserve, an affidavit is filed by one Shri Dhirendra Kumar Singh, who is presently posted as Deputy Secretary, Forest Department, Government of Uttarakhand.
2. In the affidavit, the details of the departmental proceedings against the forest officers have been given.
3. In the said affidavit, two charts have been placed on record.
4. Insofar as the first chart is concerned, out of 17 officers, who are in the rank of Ranger, Deputy Ranger, Foresters and Forest Guards, the proceedings are completed insofar as 16 officers are concerned. Unfortunately one of them has died in the road accident.
5. However the second chart which pertains to the IFS officers is concerned, the charts would reveal that the proceedings are moving at a snail’s pace.
6. In one of the cases, though the reply to chargesheet is received as way back as on 22.05.2023, nothing has been done.
7. In case of officer at Sr. No.5, though the comments of delinquent officers has been received as early as on 27.01.2025, no further action has been taken.
8. We deprecate the practice of the State in proceeding at a great speed against the lower rank officers but proceeding against the IFS Officers at a snail’s pace.
9. In respect of one of the officers, the matter has been pending with the MoEF&CC for a long time. The chart would show in spite of various reminders, the MoEF&CC has not responded.
10. We, therefore, direct the State to conclude all the departmental proceedings with respect to all the officers within the period of three months from today.
11. In case of the officer at serial No.4, the MoEF&CC shall send the information to the State Government as sought by it within a period of a fortnight from today.
12. We have also perused the report submitted by the Central Bureau of Investigation. We are satisfied with the progress of the investigation. The report would reveal that the investigation is complete and the final report under Section 173 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 would be filed before the Trial Court in due course.
13. List these applications after three months for further orders.
14. We expect the final report to be filed before the competent Court prior to the next date.”
7. Thereafter, the CBI filed its final charge-sheet under Section 173(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. On 08th September 2025, the State handed over a copy of an affidavit dated 06th September 2025, insofar as the officer concerned, i.e., Mr. Rahul, the observations in the affidavit were as under:
Status of CBI enquiry:
S. No.
Name of the Officer
Post
Status of CBI enquiry
1.
Shri Rahul
The then Director Corbett Tiger Reserve
25.04.2025- CBI report submitted.
- Sanction for prosecution has been sought under Section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (amended 2018) and Section 197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Section 218 of the CRPC)
- Legal advice is being sought from the Legal Department after approval of the competent authority.
04.08.2025- In view of the fact that in consultation with the Legal Department there was no basis for granting sanction for prosecution, it has been decided by the competent authority not to grant sanction for prosecution.
8. The Court thereafter noticed that though sanction was granted by the State Government in respect of all the other officers, the sanction was refused in case of said Mr. Rahul. Certain oral observations were made by this Court when the matter was heard on 08th September 2025 in the presence of the learned Standing Counsel for the State of Uttarakhand. The matter was heard by a Bench comprising of two of us (Hon’ble the CJI and Hon’ble Mr. Justice K.Vinod Chandran). Prima facie, the Bench was of the opinion that the State was trying to shield the said Mr. Rahul. Though, no written orders were passed to this effect, on 08th September 2025 and though the matter was simply adjourned, it appears that the State sensed what was going on in the Court. The State granted sanction vide order dated 16th September 2025 and an affidavit came to be filed on the same day stating therein that the State Government has decided to grant sanction for the prosecution of the said Mr. Rahul.
9. This Court accepted the stand of the State Government in the affidavit dated 16th September 2025 and passed the order dated 17th September 2025 as under:
“[1] I.A. NOs. 20650 OF 2023, WITH I.A. NO. 75033 OF 2023 AND I.A. NO. 199355 OF 2024
1. The matter is listed today since on the last date of hearing it was found that though the State Government has granted sanction in respect of the prosecution of all the officers except one, this Court wanted to find out as to why special treatment was being given to the said officer. This was also in the background that on an earlier occasion, this Court has found that the said officer was given a special posting despite the prima facie findings against him by the CEC, which were affirmed by this Court.
2. Today, an affidavit has been filed by the State of Uttarakhand wherein it is stated that the State Government has granted sanction for prosecution against the said officer under Section 218 of BNSS/197 of the Cr.P.C. It is submitted that insofar as the sanction under Section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (for short ‘the PC Act”), the State Government has also forwarded the papers for sanction of the Union of India.
3. Insofar as the delay in departmental proceedings is concerned, the learned Solicitor General submitted that earlier the department proceedings were initiated against the said officer for a minor penalty. However, upon the charge sheet being filed by the CBI, it has been noticed that he is liable to be charged for major penalty and therefore, now the charge sheet is issued to him for major penalty.
4. We accept the submissions of the State Government. However, we direct the State Government to conclude the departmental proceedings against the said officer as expeditiously as possible, and in any case within a period of three months from today.
5. We also direct the Union of India to consider the proposal submitted by the Government of Uttarakhand for grant of sanction under Section 19 of the PC Act.”
10. When the matter was listed before this Court on 15th October 2025, it was brought to the notice of this Court that the said Mr. Rahul has challenged the sanction order dated 16th September 2025, by way of a Writ Petition (Criminal) No. 1220 of 2025 before the High Court of Uttarakhand. It was also noticed that the High Court vide order dated 14th October 2025 had granted a stay to the proceedings against the said Mr. Rahul. Taking notice of this, this Court passed the following order on 15th October 2025:
“[1] I.A.NOS.20650/2023 WITH I.A. NOS. 75033/23 & 199355/2024:
1. We are disturbed by certain events that have taken place during the pendency of the present proceedings.
2. This Court is seized of a suo moto action pertaining to the illegal constructions and rampant felling of trees in the Corbett Tiger Reserve. The Court has been passing orders from time to time.
3. Initially, the Uttrakhand High Court had directed that an investigation be carried out by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Accordingly, CBI had conducted the investigation and an FIR also came to be filed.
4. The Court has been consistently monitoring the investigation and the CBI is submitting reports to Court. Parallelly, the departmental proceedings are also under progress.
5. When the matter was listed before this Court on 08.09.2025, it was noticed that though the State Government had granted sanction in respect of the prosecution of all the officers except one, the Court had questioned the respondent(s)/State as to why special treatment was given to one officer. It appears that pursuant to the oral observations made by this Court on 08.09.2025, the sanction came to be granted on 16.09.2025.
6. On the next date of hearing i.e. on 17.09.2025, the Court was informed that the State Government had granted sanction for prosecution against the said officer under Section 218 of the 22 BNSS/Section 197 of the Cr.P.C. The Court also recorded that insofar as the sanction under Section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (for short, ‘P.C. Act’) is concerned, the State Government had forwarded the papers for sanction to the Union of India. We had directed the Union of India to consider the proposal submitted by the Government of Uttrakhand for grant of sanction under Section 19 of the P.C. Act.
7. It appears that after the sanction was granted on 16.09.2025, the said officer, namely, Shri Rahul filed Writ Petition (Crl) No.1220 of 2025 before the High Court. In the said proceedings, sanction order dated 16.09.2025 came to be challenged. The learned Single Judge of the Uttrakhand High Court vide order dated 14th October 2025 has admitted the matter and granted stay to the effect and operation of the sanction order dated 16.09.2025.
8. When this fact is brought to the notice of this Court by the learned Amicus Curiae, Shri Tanvir Ahmed, learned senior counsel, suo moto appeared on behalf of Shri Rahul. Shri Ahmed, learned senior counsel, submits that the sanction order dated 16.09.2025 is totally impermissible in law in view of two judgments by the Constitution Bench of this Court. It is submitted that the sanctioning authority did not have the jurisdiction to review the order dated 4th August, 2024, vide which sanction was refused and subsequently grant the sanction. It is therefore submitted that in these facts the said Shri Rahul was advised to file a petition before the High Court. Shri Ahmed, learned senior counsel, further states that the party is entitled to take recourse to a legal remedy available to him in law, if he is aggrieved by an illegal order.
9. Shri Ahmed, learned senior counsel, states that the said Shri Rahul was watching the proceedings before this Court through video conferencing and therefore noticed the proceedings which were conducted before this Court on 08.09.2025 and 17.09.2025.
10. We are deeply perturbed by the approach of said Shri Rahul as well as the High Court of Uttrakhand. When the said Shri Rahul was continuously following the proceedings before this Court and was aware about the oral observations and the orders passed by this Court, nothing prevented him from intervening in these proceedings if he was of the view that any of the orders passed by this Court or any of the observations made by this Court prejudiced him. However, in the teeth of the sanction which was granted during the pendency of the proceedings before this Court, approaching the High Court to challenge an order virtually amounts to interference in the present proceedings. The High Court, no doubt, is a Constitutional Court and not inferior to this Court. However, in the judicial matters, when this Court is seized of the matter it is expected of the High Courts to keep their hands away. The learned Judge of the High Court does not even find it necessary to refer to the proceedings before this Court, though according to Shri Ahmed, learned senior counsel, the details of the present proceedings are mentioned in Writ Petition (Crl) NO.1220 of 2025, filed before the High Court.
11. In that view of the matter, we direct that the proceedings in Writ Petition (Crl) No.1220 of 2025, pending before the High Court, are withdrawn from the High Court of Uttrakhand and transferred to this Court. To be heard along with this matter. The High Court of Uttrakhand is directed to transfer the records of Writ Petition (Crl) NO.1220 of 2025 to this Court forthwith.
12. Until further orders, the order dated 14.10.2025 passed by the High Court of Uttrakhand in Writ Petition (Crl) No.1220 of 2025 shall stand stayed.
13. We also issue notice to Shri Rahul (IFS), Chief Conservator of Forests, (Information Technology), Forest Headquarters, 85, Rajpur Road, Dehradun-248001, to remain present before this Court on 11.11.2025 and show cause as to why an action for committing contempt of this Court be not initiated against him.
14. List on 11.11.2025
15. The Registrar concerned of this Court shall ensure that the notice is served to the noticee/Shri Rahul through the Chief Administrative Officer in the office of the District Judge, Dehradun.”
11. We have no manner of doubt that when the sanction order was passed during the pendency of these proceedings before this Court, and in pursuance of the series of orders passed in the present proceedings, it was not appropriate on the part of the said Mr. Rahul to have approached the High Court. If he was of the opinion that on account of any of the observations made in the orders passed by this Court, his rights were being prejudiced, then nothing prevented him from approaching this Court to seek appropriate orders. However, it appears that the said Mr. Rahul took such a decision on the basis of legal advice.
12. Though in the first half when the matter was heard, a serious attempt was made to justify the conduct of the said Mr. Rahul, it appears that better counsel prevailed during the lunch recess and when the matter is called out post lunch recess, Mr. R. Basant, learned Senior Counsel appearing for the said Mr. Rahul states that he has already tendered his unconditional apology in his affidavit. He further states that taking into consideration the unblemished record of 21 years of past service and the future 15 years of remaining service, the Court may not take a harsh view.
13. This Court has always said that the majesty of law lies not in punishing, but in forgiving.
14. The said Mr. Rahul is personally present in the Court today. It appears that on account of not getting appropriate legal advice, he took a wrong step of approaching the High Court when the issue was pending before this Court. The High Court, at least, ought to have perused the sanction order in which a reference has been made by the State Government to various orders passed by this Court. Time and again we have stated that the High Courts are not inferior to the Supreme Court. However, as and when, on the judicial side, the Supreme Court is seized of a matter, the High Court is expected to give due respect to the proceedings pending before this Court. In the teeth of the observations made in the sanction order referring to the various orders passed by this Court, the High Court ought not to have entertained the writ petition and passed interim orders.
15. When the sanction order was passed by the State Government taking into consideration the oral observations made by this Court on 08th September 2025, and when the sanction order was passed after referring to the present proceedings and series of orders of this Court, the High Court in no case should have entertained such a petition and stayed the sanction order. When the sanction was granted in view of the observations made by this Court, no other Court, other than this Court could have considered the issue with regard to the validity of the sanction.
16. We are, therefore, inclined to accept the unconditional apology tendered by the said Mr. Rahul and discharge the notice of contempt issued to him.
17. Vide order dated 15th October 2025, we had withdrawn the Writ Petition (Criminal) No. 1220 of 2025 from the High Court and transferred the same to this Court, and the same is registered as Transferred Case (Criminal) No. 2 of 2025.
18. Mr. R. Basant, learned Senior Counsel appearing for the said Mr. Rahul, on instructions, states that he would like to withdraw the said Writ Petition (Criminal) No. 1220 of 2025 reserving his right to challenge the sanction order in the appropriate proceedings.
19. Writ Petition (Criminal) No. 1220 of 2025, which has already been transferred to this Court, is permitted to be withdrawn. In that view of the matter, Transferred Case (Criminal) No. 2 of 2025 stands disposed of in the aforesaid terms.
20. We clarify that if the said Mr. Rahul desires to apply for discharge or quashing of the proceedings on any other ground available to him except the validity of the sanction, withdrawal of the Writ Petition or pendency of the present proceedings would not come in his way to take recourse to such remedies as per law. However, if he desires to challenge the validity of the sanction order, the same can be done by him only before this Court and no other court.
Result of the case: Transferred Case disposed of.