The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its judgement on Samajwadi Party Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav's plea seeking review of its earlier order for a CBI inquiry against him and family members for allegedly amassing disproportionate assets. A Bench of justices Altamas Kabir and H L Dattu reserved the verdict after hearing the Attorney General G E Vahanvati,counsel for the Yadavs,and the petitioner Vishwanath Chaturvedi. The SC had ordered a CBI inquiry on March 1,2007,into the alleged accumulation of disproportionate assets by Yadav,his sons Akhilesh and Prateek and daughter-in-law Dimple,on a public interest litigation (PIL) by an advocate Vishwanath Chaturvedi,reportedly a Congress leader. Unlike the precedent of hearing review petitions in the judges' chambers,the petition is being heard in the open court at the request of Yadav. Seeking to review its order,Yadav and his family members submitted that there was no evidence against them who are being harassed by political adversaries. Senior counsel Rakesh Dwivedi,appearing for the Yadavs,assailed the apex court's earlier order claiming it would "set a dangerous precedent" of allowing political opponents to file "false and frivolous" petitions against their detractors. During the arguments,Vahanvati,while refraining from going into the merits of the allegations against the Yadavs,cited a number of judicial pronouncements to drive home the point that the apex court has powers to order a CBI inquiry in "exceptional cases." Earlier,the Yadav family had contended that the court is being drawn into a political battle by his adversaries through PILs and the apex court should not entertain such petitions. Yadav submitted that at best the complainant should have lodged an FIR or alternatively under 190CrPC to move a magistrate for an appropriate direction to the authorities concerned to register an FIR. Senior Advocate K T S Tulsi,appearing for Vishwanath Chaturvedi on whose plea the CBI inquiry was directed,said there was nothing wrong in the order and the review petition should be dismissed. "Since the Governor failed to take any action on a complaint filed against them (Mulayam and his family members),so the petitioner was left with no option but to approach the court," Tulsi said. He also criticised the Centre for changing its stand on the issue which had favoured CBI probe at the time order was passed but later said the inquiry should be ordered only in exceptional cases. The apex court had directed CBI to investigate the matter and submit its report to the union government to decide further course of action in the case but later the investigation agency prayed to the court to allow it to submit the report before the Supreme Court. It again moved another application in the apex court seeking to withdraw its plea for submitting the report to the apex court and instead stick to the original direction. However,the move evoked criticism from the court. "You (CBI) are acting at the behest of central government and the Law Ministry. You are not acting on your own," the court had remarked at that time. Chaturvedi had alleged in his petition that the SP chief and his family members had amassed assets worth over Rs 100 crore through corrupt means during his tenure as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. The apex court had directed CBI to investigate the matter and submit its report to the union government to decide further course of action in the case but later the investigation agency prayed to the court to allow it to submit the report before the Supreme Court. It again moved another application in the apex court seeking to withdraw its plea for submitting the report to the apex court and instead stick to the original direction. However,the move evoked criticism from the court. "You (CBI) are acting at the behest of central government and the Law Ministry. You are not acting on your own," the court had remarked at that time. Chaturvedi had alleged in his petition that the SP chief and his family members had amassed assets worth over Rs 100 crore through corrupt means during his tenure as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.
