‘We didn’t direct roving probe; scope of order limited to money released for Taj project’
In a major relief to the former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, the Supreme Court on Friday quashed a First Information Report registered against Mayawati by the CBI, alleging that she acquired assets dispro portionate to the known sources of her income.
A Bench of Justices P. Sathasivam and Dipak Misra said: “The impugned FIR is without jurisdiction and any investigation pursuant thereto is illegal. After reading all the orders of this Court, we are satisfied that this court, being the ultimate custodian of fundamental rights, did not issue any direction to the CBI to conduct a roving inquiry into the assets of the petitioner commencing from 1995 to 2003 even though the Taj Heritage Corridor Project was conceived only in July, 2002 and an amount of Rs. 17 crore was released in August/September 2002.”
Writing the judgment, Justice Sathasivam said: “The method adopted by the CBI is unwarranted and without jurisdiction. We are also satisfied that the CBI has proceeded without a proper understanding of various orders passed by this court. We are also satisfied that there was no such direction relating to second FIR (relating to disproportionate assets), dated 05.10.2003.”
Quoting a Constitution Bench decision in the Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights case, the judges said: “Only when this court, after considering material on record, comes to a conclusion that such material does disclose a prima facie case calling for investigation by the CBI for the alleged offence, could an order directing inquiry by the CBI be passed and that too after giving an opportunity of hearing to the affected person...”
‘Scope of court order limited to Taj project’
Quoting a Constitution Bench decision in the Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights case, A Bench of Justices P. Sathasivam and Dipak Misra said that only when this court, after considering material on record, came to a conclusion that such material did disclose a prima facie case calling for investigation by the CBI into the alleged offence, could an order directing an inquiry be passed and that too after giving the affected person an opportunity of hearing.
“There was no such finding or satisfaction recorded by this court in the matter of disproportionate assets of the petitioner on the basis of the status report dated September 11, 2003 and, in fact, the petitioner was not a party before this court in the case in question. From a perusal of those orders, we are also satisfied that there could not have been any material before this court about the disproportionate assets case beyond the Taj Corridor Project case and there was no such question or issue about disproportionate assets of the petitioner.”
The Bench said: “A perusal of the order dated September 18, 2003 would reveal that whatever directions were issued by this court were only in respect of Rs. 17 crore alleged to have been released without proper sanction [for the Taj corridor project] and there is not even a whisper about making an investigation into any other assets of the persons involved in general. In other words, the scope of the order of this court was limited to the extent of money released for the said project and not otherwise.”
In view of the same, “giving any direction to lodge FIR relating to the disproportionate assets case did not arise. The CBI exceeded its jurisdiction in lodging the FIR dated October 5, 2003 in the absence of any direction from this court. A reading of all the orders of this court clearly shows the direction to lodge FIR was issued only with respect to the Taj Corridor matter, more particularly, irregularities therein. The main allegation relates to an amount of Rs. 17 crore which was released by the State government without proper sanction. In such a situation, the CBI was directed to interrogate and verify their assets. As rightly pointed out by senior counsel Harish Salve, there was no occasion for this court to consider the alleged disproportionate assets of the petitioner separately that too from 1995 to 2003 when admittedly Rs. 17 crore was released in September 2002,” the Bench said.
“The fact remains that the investigation report filed by the CBI before this court which was considered on October 25, 2004 shows that large-scale irregularities do not show any link between such irregularities and the Taj Corridor matter. The said finding/conclusion by this court was based on the investigation report of the CBI. In view of the same, we are satisfied that the CBI cannot be permitted to take the view that the two cases, namely, the Taj Corridor and the disproportionate assets case, are the same and the investigation was done in both cases as per the directions of this court,” the Bench said.
Keywords: disporportionate assets case, Supreme Court, Mayawati, CBI probe
@Yashwanth P - You are right - "accept the Dalits and grant them their
due rights with respect." This must extend to all acts including
alleged acts of wrongdoings and breaking the laws, if after indulging
in similar activities the non-Dalit leaders are being allowed to go
scot-free. There should not be different sets of laws for different
groups of Indian citizens.
Here is a brilliant idea!!! Why not save a lot of money and bother -
just de-criminalise all such acts, disband the police, investigating
agencies and the judiciary?? This will also, at a stroke, make India
the most corruption-free and moral country in the whole wide world!!
Q.E.D.
Did Mayavathi pay taxes for all the income? If not, where is the Indian Tax
authorities?
I am absolutely aghast at the SC verdict.How can one not lose all faith in every thing governmental including institutions which are supposed to be unbiased like the Governor's post,the police,the armed forces etc.Sometimes one is left to ponder and contemplate as to when the sleeping giant ,to wit, the people will wake up and take things into their hands to rectify matters.The Rip Van Winkle slumber of the people is costing the nation dear which enriching a whole batallion of --------.
Scams after scams involving politicians and politicians escape all the time.
CBI has great officers. I cannot just believe that CBI can make such a blunder.
Then was the whole investigation just to buy time? Looks so. So many other scandals have occurred during this period that people no longer consider this scam seriously.
God only needs to save this country.
now one Can Understand why Corruption is on raise in india...
And what ever Mayawati did was right!! great!! bravo!!! Getting bribe is right and building asset with public money is now approved.
Atlast court has given the verdict that CBI is wrong!!! Don't waste your time, sleep and wake up. They have not only discourage the CBI but left them to the mercy of the politician who is the only source who can question their authority. They just closed the door again. If the proceedings are wrong then a big people doing big crime's can go scot free!!! 500 years ago the kings did to British now the history repeats back -back stabbing
This case shows the pathetic state of both the CBI and our judiciary. The sleaze of our
political system was already well established.
At this rate, people will lose faith in Judiciary as well. Even the courts seem to be behaving like a ruling party's extended arm. Now that Cong and Maya have become friends and awaiting mutual benefits on account of Presidential Elections, bang comes the court order to releive mayawati so that she votes for UPA in Presidential election.
What else explains the gap between Sep 13, 2011 and the verdict today (close to one year)? Does the court took one year to recognize CBI was not supposed to investigate into the disproportionate assets case?
Supreme court should work based on evidence and not on technicalities. IF there is evidence, think it should prosecute rather than digging into who brought the evidence.
Remember the same during the last presidential elections. CBI dropped cases against Mayawati and the next day she supported UPA presidential candidate.
Same Wine Different Bottles. God save India.
It is madam ji's style of saying thank you.
you see,this world runs only on one theory i.e you scratch my back,I'll scratch yours.
So you help us in installing a president and we'd let CBI off.
Same has happened with Mulayam Singh Yadav earlier
Nothing surprise. We have a Chief Minister here in our Tamilnadu, stretching a case for 13 years.Why nobody talks about her? Maya is being targeted because of caste?
Very good india.
This is indeed a body blow to Sonia Congress. Political wars have to be fought at the hustings and not in law courts.
This, and many botched cases, give an impression that CBI as an
organization is highly inefficient and incompetent and needs to be
cleaned up. Is it that the way the government functions, recruits and
pays creates an environment where the bulk of people it hires are not as
competent as they should be ? If I were at the CBI, I won't be proud of
myself or my organization.
If indeed the CBI was on the wrong track and its investigation was not pertinent to the case against Mayawati then the question remains why has the CBI acted the way it did? I don't think it is manned by a bunch of stupid individuals who don't understand a court order. Then who directed it to proceed against the former UP CM with an intention to embroil her in a disproportionate asset case? This is not to suggest that Ms. Mayawati is squeaky clean and no investigation should be initiated against her questionable source of income. But when the CBI does so without properly following a court order that mandates something else the investigation becomes 'unwarranted'. The investigating agency then becomes vulnerable to political brickbats and its credibility gets eroded. I will be hugely disappointed if this quashing of case spells an end to any future investigation into Ms. Mayawati's source of wealth.
The Supreme Court ruling must have come as a blessing in disguise for CBI, now that
Ms Mayawati and Congress High Command are friends with a mandate to instal Mr
Pranab Mukherjea as President. CBI could never have said that it pursued against the
BSP Chief on Taj Corridor Scam only at the behest of Congress. The elephants and
statues are now things of the past. However, it will be interesting if CBI pursues other
cases as it has been clarified that anything beyond Taj Corridor Scam was not subject
matter of the SC.
This is very telling of how the CBI is used and allows itself to be used to settle politial scores. This quashing order has nothing to do with Mayawati's status as mass leader. She was wrongfully targetted and this case was a wrongfully initiated by the CBI by misreading the orders of the court and initiated action which was not directed. But more imprtantly, even after initiating the case they were not able to produce evidence to prove their case. Unfortunately the media looks at only the allegations and goes on a villification campaign without seeing whether or not these allegations have been proved.
People in media, politics, etc should stop targetting Dalit ideology and its leaders. It is time to shed racist attitude based on birth and accept the Dalits and grant them their due rights with respect.
It is really surprising how a leading investigating agency of the
country does not understand the orders. Does it reflect the inefficiency
of the agency to that extend.
where is this country heading? everyone is aware how mayawati or how her government was.just because CBI has not followed SC directions does not warrant squashing complete case against mayawati. SC should have kept public interest in mind before passing such orders.
It's sad to note the developments. In India, if someone becomes a mass leader, whatever malpractice,loot or crime he/she does, they will get away from the law. Even the judiciary starts to hesitate to proceed against them. Time and again this has happened with all cases involving a high profile politician. This is such a sad and a dangerous situation for the country. Where will the common man look up to?
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