SC’s 2014 judgment declaring Section 6A of the DSPE Act as unconstitutional will have retrospective effect: Supreme Court

The Constitution bench of the Supreme Court (SC) today declared its 2014 judgment in Subramanian Swamy vs. Director CBI will have retrospective effect. The 2014 judgment addressed here declared Section 6A of the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act, 1946 as unconstitutional. This means that Section 6A of the DSPE Act is not to be held in force from its insertion date. Today’s order was passed by the Constitution bench including Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Justice Vikram Nath, Justice AS Oka, Justice JK Maheshwari, and Justice Sanjiv Khanna. 

Section 6A of the DSPE Act illustrates ‘approval of Central Government to conduct inquiry or investigation’, it states, “The Delhi Special Police Establishment shall not conduct any inquiry or investigation into any offence alleged to have been committed under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 except with the previous approval of the Central Government where such allegation related to the employees of the Central Government of the Level of Joint Secretary and above…” 

Earlier in November last year, the SC bench reserved its judgment on the matter after hearing arguments over the pivotal issue. After hearing the contentions today, the top Court bench ordered “The judgment in Subramanian Swamy will have retrospective effect. We have not decided the other issues or heard the appeals on merits which will be heard by respective benches.”