Peaceful Sleep Of Civilians Is At Cost Of Sleepless Nights Of Soldiers: Kerala High Court Orders CBI Probe In Missing Soldier Case

The High Court was considering a petition filed by an aggrieved father of a soldier who went missing 14 years back, seeking a CBI investigation into the matter.

The Single Bench of Justice G. Girish stated, “It is true that the golden hours in a case of missing of a person to take prompt action for retrieval is 48 hours to 72 hours. But, in a case like this, where a paramilitary Jawan who had been guarding the borders of our Nation went missing without any leads, and his hapless father has been toiling his health, time and money for the past 14 years running after various authorities, hopeful of them taking some effective steps in unravelling the mystery behind the disappearance of his son, this Court cannot shut its doors against him, when he requests for CBI enquiry as a last resort.”

“Therefore, this case has to be taken as one of the rarest cases where the powers under Article 226 of the Constitution of India have to be exercised for directing an investigation by the CBI into the disappearance of the petitioner’s son”, it added.

Advocate Sooraj T. Elenjickal represented the Petitioner while Deputy Solicitor General Of India O.M. Shalina represented the Respondent.

Factual Background

The petition was filed by the father of the missing soldier, who was a rifleman employed with the Tripura State Rifles, a paramilitary force. The Jawan went missing on April 4, 2012, while on a return train journey from Kerala to Guwahati, after enjoying a month’s leave at his native place at Vengoor. After the petitioner had seen off his son at the Ernakulam railway station, he claimed to have received a telephone call from his son from an unfamiliar mobile number that the train had reached Visakhapattanam, and he was not feeling well. The soldier asked his father not to worry and said that he could take care of himself.

However, on April 10, 2012, the Commandant of Tripura State Rifles called upon the petitioner and informed him that his son had not reported back to the office on completion of the leave period. Thereafter, the petitioner ran from pillar to post to find the whereabouts of his son. The petitioner had filed complaints before the Sub Inspector of Police, Railway Police Station, Ernakulam, about the missing Jawan and had also approached various authorities, but to no avail.

The petitioner approached the Court with the writ petition filed on October 29, 2012 seeking appropriate directions to the authorities concerned for taking effective steps to trace out his missing son. The High Court directed the District Superintendent of Police to depute any competent police officer to get the details of the Railway Police Station, Visakhapatnam, and to find out whether the investigating agency there had taken any positive steps in finding out the missing person. However, the Visakhapatnam Police expressed their helplessness and finally closed the investigation as undetected.

Reasoning

The Bench, at the outset, stated, “Peaceful sleep of the civilian is at the cost of sleepless nights, vigilance and sacrifice of the soldier. The civilian society of the Nation in return, owes a responsibility to stand by the soldier who protects them, in case he faces a crisis in personal life. Here is a case where the police force of three States and a premier Armed Force of Tripura are not able to trace out a soldier, who disappeared into mystery fourteen years back.”

The Bench refused to accept the objection raised by the Special Public Prosecutor against the lack of territorial jurisdiction of the Court to intervene in the matter related to the case and held, “The basic concept of criminal jurisprudence about the jurisdiction of the Courts in respect of an offence committed during journey or voyage is contained in Section 183 Cr.P.C which has been rewritten as Section 203 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023.As per the above provision of law, if an offence is committed in the course of performing a journey or voyage, it may be enquired into or tried by a Court through or into whose local jurisdiction the person by or against whom the offence was committed, passed in the course of that journey or voyage.”

Taking such provision into consideration, the Bench held that it was well within the ambit of powers of the Court to exercise its writ jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution in connection with the missing of the petitioner’s son during the course of his train journey from Ernakulam to Guwahati.

With respect to the contention about the rare chances of making any breakthrough in finding out the missing person due to the long elapse of 14 years from the date of his disappearance, the Bench stated, “...a premier investigating agency like CBI is not expected to take a negative pessimistic attitude in a case like this.”

The Bench was of the view that the Court cannot shut its doors against the father when he requests a CBI enquiry as a last resort, considering that a paramilitary Jawan who had been guarding the borders of our nation went missing without any leads, and his hapless father had been toiling running after various authorities.

The Bench thus handed over the investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation. “The State Police Chiefs of Kerala and Andhra Pradesh shall take immediate steps for the transmission of all the relevant records pertaining to the investigation so far done in the above case to the Officer of the Central Bureau of Investigation entrusted with the charge of investigation”, it ordered.

Cause Title: Balan P.K. v. State Of Kerala (Neutral Citation: 2026:KER:74462)

Appearance

Petitioner: Advocate Sooraj T. Elenjickal

Respondent: Deputy Solicitor General Of India O.M. Shalina, Advocate P.V . Santhosh, (Sr.) Spl. Public Prosecutor Dr.K.P. Satheesan, Public Prosecutor Sameer. S

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