The counsel of Samaj Parivartana Samudaya (SPS) on Thursday sought to withdraw the allegations that an Additional Advocate-General (AAG) had “mislead” a Division Bench presided over by the acting Chief Justice about the issues raised in SPS’s petition, seeking a direction for a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into corruption within the Lokayukta institution.
T.N. Raghupathy, counsel for the SPS, orally made submissions, requesting the court to hear at the earliest, the plea for a CBI probe. However, the AAG said oral allegations made in the court on July 21 were later reiterated in an affidavit filed on behalf of the SPS along with other contentions. Following this, a Division Bench comprising Justice N. Kumar and Justice G. Narendar adjourned further hearing by two weeks while asking the AAG to file objections to the affidavit, which was filed by SPS’s earlier counsel K.V. Dhananjay.
A Division Bench headed by the acting Chief Justice had on July 20 transferred SPS’s PIL to the Division Bench headed by Justice Kumar to “avoid conflicting judicial opinion” after the AAG had stated that the issues raised in the PIL are similar to the issues raised in a petition filed by Ashwin Y., son of Lokayukta Y. Bhaskar Rao. The AAG had contended before the Bench headed by acting Chief Justice that SPS’s PIL should also be heard along with Mr. Ashwin’s petition and hence had requested the Bench headed by the acting Chief Justice to transfer the PIL to the Bench headed by Justice N. Kumar. However, Mr. Dhananjay had claimed that the issues were not similar and there was no need to transfer it.
