In a relief to the family of Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Supreme Court on Monday dismissed an application for the court to find out the status of, and further monitor, the CBI probe into his assets and those of his sons Akhilesh Yadav and Prateek Yadav, allegedly disproportionate to their known sources of income.
The application by Vishwanath Chaturvedi, whose PIL petition led the court to order the CBI probe, also urged the court to pronounce its ruling on his plea for a copy of the Regular Case (FIR) filed against the Yadavs. Mr. Chaturvedi argued that the court had reserved its judgment on his plea in 2009.
A Bench, led by Justice Ranjan Gogoi, declined to entertain the application, saying the court had already answered the issues raised by Mr. Chaturvedi in a 2012 ruling. The Bench said the 2012 judgment gave the CBI freedom to go about the inquiry and “take whatever steps it wishes to take on the basis of the inquiry.”
The 2012 ruling had modified a March 1, 2007 order which required the CBI to submit a report of its preliminary inquiry to the Centre.
A Bench of the then Chief Justice of India, Altamas Kabir, and Justice H.L. Dattu had relieved the CBI of this liability, observing that it was “an independent body and is under no obligation to report to the Union of India in regard to investigations undertaken by it.”
Modification of orderThe 2012 judgment also further modified the 2007 order so as to exempt Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav’s daughter-in-law Dimple Yadav from the inquiry as she had not held any public post during the period under investigation.
In his present application, Mr. Chaturvedi said: “Nothing has been done till date by the CBI, and whatever has been done is a mere facilitation to the accused... under the instructions of its political master now in office — the present Central government. He said there was no response from the Centre to representations made by India Rejuvenation Initiative (IRI), led by the former Chief Justice of India, R.C. Lahoti, for appropriate action.
