The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a special leave petition filed by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati against an order of the Allahabad High Court admitting a petition challenging the dropping of the case against her in the Rs.175- crore Taj Corridor Project scam.
A Bench of Justices V.S. Sirpurkar and B. Sudershan Reddy, while declining to interfere with the order at this stage, said it would be open to Ms. Mayawati to raise the question of maintainability of the petition before the High Court.
Ms. Mayawati had challenged the order admitting a public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed by Kamlesh Verma and two others challenging the refusal of the then Governor T.V. Rajeswar to grant the CBI sanction to prosecute her in the case and the dropping of the case thereafter. Senior counsel K.K. Venugopal, appearing for Ms. Mayawati, submitted that the PIL petition was an abuse of the process of law after the Supreme Court had dismissed three similar petitions and one application filed by amicus curiae.
Justice Sirpurkar pointed out that the High Court had not passed any final order.
"Raise issues before High Court"
When counsel said the PIL petition had the propensity for destabilising the government, Justice Sirpurkar said: "We are not concerned with what the Opposition is going to demand to destabilise the government. We will not go into issues whether it is politically motivated or not. You are not precluded from raising all the issues before the High Court."
The CBI in 2007 filed the charge sheet against the Chief Minister in a special court in Lucknow. But the Governor rejected the CBI's request for sanction to prosecute her and the trial court closed the case for want of sanction.
