Courts have thus been consistently adopting a view that the necessity to take away the enquiry/investigation/proceedings from one agency and entrust it to an alternative independent agency would depend on the facts of the specific case,” Justice Anita Sumanth said.

CHENNAI: Madras High Court has held that the courts have no restriction in dealing with requests for transferring investigations from one agency to another even if the jurisdiction lies in another state.

“Courts have thus been consistently adopting a view that the necessity to take away the enquiry/investigation/proceedings from one agency and entrust it to an alternative independent agency would depend on the facts of the specific case,” Justice Anita Sumanth said.

The observations were made in response to the contention of the Karnataka state on a 2015 writ petition – filed by Shanthi of Salem district, whose husband Palani was killed in a shootout by Karnataka forest officials on the inter-state border, seeking transfer of the probe from the state Police to CBI- that the Madras High Court lacked territorial jurisdiction since the incident occurred in the neighbouring state.

The State Public Prosecutor (SPP) KR Keshav Murthy, representing Karnataka, also stated the HC cannot assume the powers of a judicial magistrate since the case on the death of Palani was taken cognizance by the judicial magistrate court of Kollegal. Palani, along with Raja and Muthusamy, had ventured for fishing on the river on the interstate border. He was killed in a firing resorted to by the Karnataka forest department personnel on October 22, 2014.

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