HC refuses to give relief for Chavan

Bombay High Court rejects CBI application seeking permission to drop Ashok Chavan's name from the Adarsh charge sheet.

November 19, 2014 12:02 pm | Updated September 23, 2017 12:52 pm IST - MUMBAI:

In a blow to Congress leader and former Chief Minister of Maharashtra Ashok Chavan, the Bombay High Court on Wednesday refused to grant him relief in the Adarsh scam. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had filed an application seeking permission to delete Mr Chavan's name as an accused from the Adarsh charge sheet. The court on Wednesday dismissed the application.

It, however, granted stay to the order for four weeks to enable the CBI to appeal in the Supreme Court. In these weeks, the trial court will not be able to initiate any proceedings against Mr Chavan. The trial court has so far not taken cognisance of the charge sheet filed against 13 persons including Mr Chavan and some senior bureaucrats and ex-servicemen.

"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," Justice M L Tahiliyani said in his order passed on Wednesday morning via video conferencing from the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court.

Mr Chavan has been accused of criminal conspiracy and criminal misconduct for granting additional Floor Space Index (FSI) to 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 the ex-service personnel.

"It cannot be co­incident that two of the close relatives of respondent No.2 got two flats worth crores of rupees according to the market value, by investing much lesser amount as compared to market value," the order stated. Senior counsel for Mr Chavan, Amit Desai, had argued that other societies in the vicinity were granted similar benefits, and that Mr Chavan was being singled out by the CBI for no reason.

But the court said it was not given any evidence to show that other societies too received similar benefits. "Even if it is accepted for the time being, for the sake of arguments, that similar benefit was given to other societies also, it cannot be said that it was in the interest of public," Justice Tahiliyani observed.

In the revision application filed before the Bombay High Court in April this year, the CBI had challenged the lower court's order disallowing it to delete Mr Chavan's name as an accused from the Adarsh proceedings. But the high court on Wednesday upheld the trial court's order.

"It is, thus, clear that the learned trial Judge has given a finding that despite the application by CBI for closing the case or deleting name of respondent No.2, it was not possible to do so because the offence punishable under Section 13(2) is independent of the offences for which the sanction has been refused by the Governor. For all these reasons, the application has been rightly rejected. There is no substance in the revision application. Revision application, therefore, stands dismissed," the order said.

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