Samba spy case: HC rejects convicts' plea

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thursday rejected a plea by two dismissed Army officers, who have served 14 years' imprisonment in the three-decade-old Samba espionage case, to quash the court martial against them.

In 2006, the Supreme Court while setting aside the High Court's 2000 order quashing the Court Martial and directing Army to give the petitioners consequential benefits.

The apex court had also directed the petitioners, Capt Ashok Kumar Rana and Capt Ranbir Singh Rathaur, to approach the Delhi High Court to re-hear their petition.

The Supreme Court had asked the High Court to pass an order whether their writ was maintainable or not, before granting relief to them.

On Thursday, a High Court Bench of Justice Vikramjit Sen and Justice S L Bhayana dismissed their petition stating that at this stage the petition was not maintainable.

The Bench accepted the Union government's argument that at this stage the writ could not be maintained as in 1981 the apex court had upheld their Court Martial and the accused had completed their sentence in 1989.

Justice Sen's Bench observed that it would be wrong on the part of the Court to take a decision for reopening of a concluded case following the Supreme Court's final order upholding their court martial in 1981.

"To reopen a concluded case...In this analysis this writ is not maintainable," the Bench said.

The two petitioners had filed the plea for reopening the case in 1995, claiming that they had collected some fresh evidence on the basis of which the Court should quash the Court Martial in the espionage case and Army should compensate them.

Citing the statement of V K Kaul, who had investigated the spying case, and an article written by T V Rajeshwar, the then IB Director and presently the Governor of UP, Rathaur and Rana claimed that they were innocent and they should be given all consequential benefits.

Both of them were released from jail in 1989 after they served a jail term awarded to them for indulging in espionage for Pakistan.

The first espionage case came to light in 1975. A total of 42 Army personnel, who were working in Jammu and Kashmir's Samba sector, were arrested.

The Army, however, had conducted Court Martial against Rana and Rathaur and sentenced both of them to 14 year imprisonment in 1978. The Supreme Court in 1981 had upheld their court martial.