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The Supreme Court today wrapped up the DK Jain Committee which was constituted to probe into illegal arrest of Scientist Nambi Narayanan by erring officials under the Kerala Government of 1994.

Court noted that the CBI had found reasons to file FIRs against the erring officials but clarified that the DK Jain committee report by itself would not be the basis for proceeding further in the matter.

A Division Bench of Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice Sanjiv Khanna, while hearing the matter today, said,

“We perused the reports submitted by the respondent CBI. It is mentioned in the report that after examining the relevant aspect, the FIR has been registered. The CBI has not uploaded the FIR as of now. It will be done in the course of the day (as submitted by the Learned SGI, Tushar Mehta).

The earlier order only required the CBI to ensure that the report submitted by the Jain committee should not be made public. Now that the CBI has finally decided to proceed in the matter, further steps after registration of FIR shall follow as per law and no directions are required from the Court in this regard.

The respondent can take recourse to all possible remedies in law. Further, after registration of FIR, the investigating agency must collate evidences by its own and not proceed on the basis of the report submitted by Justice DK Jain Committee. That by itself cannot be the basis to proceed against the respondents, in the FIR by CBI.

We accede to the request of SV Raju, ASG, that the DK Jain committee constituted under the orders of this court may cease to function. We appreciate the efforts of the members of the committee, including the chairman of the committee.”

On April 15, A Full Bench of Justice AM Khanwilkar, Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice Krishna Murari, directed the CBI to treat the Jain Committee Report as a preliminary Inquiry Report and proceed without public disclosure of the same.

In September 2018, the Supreme Court had held that the prosecution initiated by Kerala Police in the 1990's in relation to the ISRO Espionage Case was maliciously moved against the Scientist, causing him immense humiliation.

As a result of this, the Kerala Government was directed to pay compensation of Rs. 50 lac to Narayanan. Further to this, a three-member committee was constituted to probe into the illegal arrest of Narayanan.

Case Title: S. Nambi Narayanan v. Siby Mathew