Section 6

A five-Judge Constitution Bench held that the 2014 declaration in Subramanian Swamy striking down Section 6A of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act operates retrospectively. Section 6A, which barred the CBI from inquiring into or investigating corruption allegations against officers of Joint Secretary level and above without prior Central Government approval, is held not in force from its insertion on 11.09.2003. Article 20(1) was held inapplicable because the provision was only procedural (paras 36, 43).

The Supreme Court upheld the conviction of the man who shot Sant Longowal in 1985 under the TADA Act of 1985, which allowed only death for a terrorist act causing death, but commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment (paras 24, 37). Because Section 25 of TADA 1987 overrides inconsistent enactments, "the exclusivity of the extreme sentence contained in Section 3(2) of TADA 1985 must stand superseded by the corresponding benevolent provision in TADA 1987" (para 35).

A three-Judge Bench of the Supreme Court held that Section 4(1) of the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, 1988 does not apply to suits, claims or actions filed before it came into force on 19 May 1988, and that Section 4(2) does not bar a benami defence already allowed in a pending suit (para 21). It held that Mithilesh Kumari v. Prem Behari Khare does not lay down correct law on this point (para 21).

The Supreme Court held that the 1976 central amendment to the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act impliedly repealed West Bengal's 1973 amendment, which had made adulteration punishable with life imprisonment, so the High Court's order that pending cases proceed under Section 16A stood, with the reduced punishment (paras 4, 15, 17, 26). "The rule of beneficial construction requires that even ex post facto law of such a type should be applied to mitigate the rigour of the law" (para 22).