The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has told the Bombay High Court that it did not require the Maharashtra government’s consent to probe individual cases.
According to the CBI’s affidavit, the State, in an order in 1989, allowed the agency to exercise its jurisdiction. “The Maharashtra State government through the Home department on February 22, 1989 accorded consent under Section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act to the CBI to exercise its power and jurisdiction to the whole of Maharashtra. This order is deemed to be taken as an unequivocal consent.”
According to the affidavit, no separate or individual consent was necessary with regard to each case probed by the agency. In the affidavit it was pointed out that even when the CBI filed its FIR in the Adarsh scam in January 2011 and informed the High Court about it, the Advocate General appearing for the State did not raise any objection.
The affidavit was filed after the State government and the Adarsh CHS challenged the CBI probe on the ground that neither the government nor the High Court had given it the permission to take over the investigation.
The former Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Ashok Chavan, also an accused in the case, also filed a petition seeking to quash the case against him on the ground that he was implicated by his political rivals and the CBI had no jurisdiction.
Meanwhile, court proceedings in Adarsh scam case are likely to get delayed at least by a month after division bench of Justices P.V. Hardas and Mrudula Bhatkar on Monday recused itself from hearing various petitions filed in the Adarsh case without assigning any reason. The petitions will now have to be transferred to a different bench.
