In an interim relief to former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, the Bombay High Court on Friday stayed its own order — refusing the CBI permission to drop his name from the Adarsh charge sheet — for six more weeks.
This means that the court will again hear arguments on whether Mr. Chavan’s name could be deleted from the Adarsh proceedings. It also means that the trial court will not be able to prosecute Mr. Chavan till the High Court decides on the matter.
Mr. Chavan has been accused of criminal conspiracy and criminal misconduct for granting additional Floor Space Index to the Adarsh housing society in lieu of flats for relatives, and for illegally allowing 40 per cent allotment to civilians in the housing society initially mooted for ex-service personnel.
Last month, the Bombay High Court disallowed the CBI’s application seeking deletion of Mr. Chavan’s name from the proceedings. It had, however, granted four weeks’ stay on its order to allow the CBI to approach the Supreme Court.
‘Recall order’ On Friday, Justice M.L. Tahaliyani further extended the stay for six weeks after Mr. Chavan filed for recall of the court order on the grounds that it had violated principles of natural justice. The stay will now be effective till the end of January 2015.
Mr. Chavan claimed that he wasn’t given an opportunity to argue on the legal points mentioned in the order. The CBI too concurred that there were no arguments on certain legal points given in the order. In view of these contentions, the court will hear the matter again in January next year.
Last month, Justice Tahaliyani said in his order: “The charges levelled against respondent No. 2 [Mr. Chavan] for the alleged individual acts cannot go away only because the Governor has refused to grant sanction for prosecuting respondent No. 2 for conspiracy and cheating.”
“It cannot be coincidence that two of the close relatives of respondent No. 2 got two flats worth crores of rupees according to market value, by investing a much lesser amount as compared to the market value,” the order had stated.
