The Bombay High Court on Wednesday reserved its order on a PIL seeking a directive to the Central Bureau of Investigation to challenge the discharge of BJP chief Amit Shah in the alleged fake encounter case of Sohrabuddin Shaikh, Tulsiram Prajapati and Kausar Bi.
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A Division Bench of Justices Ranjit More and Bharati Dangre was hearing a public interest litigation petition filed by the Bombay Lawyers Association (BLA) terming the CBI’s inaction to challenge the discharge of Mr. Shah in the case ‘illegal, arbitrary and mala fide’.
‘Breach of trust’
Appearing for the BLA, senior counsel Dushyant Dave said the CBI’s failure to challenge the discharge was a constitutional breach of trust and just because Sohrabuddin was a gangster, it did not give the police a licence to kill. By accusing the agency of challenging discharge of only a few accused, Mr. Dave said, “We cannot allow in our body politico, for an investigating agency, which is not answerable to anyone, but its own conscience, to selectively challenge the discharge petitions.” He said the investigative agency was the kingpin in the justice system and it had failed to file an appeal in this case, so there was an omission on its part.
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Conscious decision
Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, representing the CBI, told the court, “We have taken the conscious decision to not file an application to challenge the discharge.” He said 15 out of 38 accused had been discharged by the CBI court and one by the High Court. The senior counsel said “it is the duty of the agency to only investigate and not challenge the judicial order of discharge.”
Mr. Singh said it was for the trial court to decide on discharge applications and it was not the duty of the agency to challenge the discharge. After hearing arguments from both sides, the court reserved the order.