In a huge blow to former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan within two days of being appointed as Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee chief, the Bombay High Court on Wednesday blocked way from clearing his name in the Adarsh scam case.This means, prosecution against Mr Chavan will continue in the Adarsh case.
The court refused his application seeking recall of the previous order which had disallowed the Central Bureau of Investigation from deleting his name from the Adarsh charge sheet. "I do not find any merits in the application. The application stands dismissed," Justice M L Tahaliyani said on Wednesday.
He also refused to grant an interim stay to Wednesday's order. "You have got enough time during the pendency of this matter. Prayer for stay rejected,"
On Tuesday, during the final arguments on the matter, the court had said that it agreed that it had the right to recall its order. "But whether I should recall the order or not, is something I have to decide," Justice Tahaliyani had said.
Mr Chavan's counsel had pleaded that the court should recall its November 2014 order and hear the matter again.
Refuting Mr Chavan's arguments that the November 2014 was against the principles of natural justice as not enough opportunity was given to him, the judge observed in his order on Saturday, "It is abundantly clear that the order can be recalled only if the opportunity is not given to the party adversely affected by the order. In the present case the applicant's advocate was heard at length for few hours and almost all issues were argued before me by the learned counsel. Therefore, it cannot be said that the opportunity was not given to the applicant of being heard. More than sufficient opportunity was given to the applicant."
Mr Chavan had also objected to certain observations made by the court in the previous order. But the court refused to recall the order on that basis. "It is possible that certain portion of the order may contain certain observations without there being detail deliberation at the time of hearing. Such observations are not necessarily incorrect only because there was no detail deliberation. In any event, if this Court has committed some mistake or error while making such observations, the same cannot be cured by this Court by recalling the order," he said.
"Hence, I am of the view that even if some mistake or glaring omission has been committed by this Court, while passing the order dated 19th of November, 2014, the same is subject to the decision of the Hon'ble Supreme Court. I do not think that recall of order is remedy for the same," Justice Tahaliyani observed further.
The CBI had earlier moved an application before the court challenging a lower court's order which had refused to give a nod to the central agency to delete his name from the charge sheet. The CBI had said that in view of lack of Governor's permission to prosecute him, it should be allowed to withdraw his name from the Adarsh charge sheet.
But the Bombay High Court had held in its order in November last year that though the Governor had not given permission to prosecute Mr Chavan for conspiracy, he could be prosecuted under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
After this order was passed, Ashok Chavan had, last December, filed an application seeking its recall. "It violates the principles of natural justice. We should be granted status quo ante in this matter, so that we can argue over it again," Amit Desai, Ashok Chavan's counsel, had argued before Justice M L Tahaliyani.
The CBI had not opposed the application.
Mr Desai had said that the order mentioned points which were not argued during the course of the hearing. The court had earlier showed willingness to delete specific portions of the order, which referred to the points which were allegedly not argued.
But Mr Desai argued that the court should either recall the entire order, or not recall anything at all.
