The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to entertain a petition filed by 14 political parties led by the Congress alleging arbitrary use of Central probe agencies against Opposition leaders
The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to entertain a petition filed by 14 political parties led by the Congress alleging arbitrary use of Central probe agencies against Opposition leaders, asserting that laying down guidelines without facts of a criminal case will be a “very dangerous” proposition.
Observing that politicians do not have “higher immunity”, a bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice JB Pardiwala expressed disinclination to entertain the petition, saying courts are always there for taking up the grievances of political leaders as they do for common citizens.
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“Political leaders do not enjoy any immunity higher than the common citizens… Once we accept that political leaders are absolutely on the same footing as common citizens with no higher immunity, then how can we say there can be no arrests unless there is a three pronged test which is satisfied,” the bench said.
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“Take a case which does not involve the threat of bodily harm. Day-in and day-out, we get cases of financial scams. Somebody takes away 10 thousand crores, five thousand crores from retired pensioners or from ordinary middle class people and does not refund the amount… No payments are made. Complaints are filed. Usually, the FIRs are filed and then a case is filed for clubbing of the FIRs. We deal with it,” the CJI said.
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“You please come back to us when you have an individual criminal case or group of cases. Laying down general guidelines without having relation to facts of a case will be dangerous,” the bench said.
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Sensing the disinclination from the apex court, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the political parties, sought permission to withdraw the petition which was granted.
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During the argument, Singhvi referred to statistics while trying to drive home the point that Opposition leaders have been targeted by federal investigative agencies from 2014 to 2022 and that there has been a 600 per cent increase in CBI and ED cases.
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“Between 2014 and 2022, 121 political leaders have been probed by the Enforcement Directorate, out of whom 95 per cent are from Opposition parties,” he claimed. The CBI has probed 124 political leaders and out of these, 108 are from Opposition political parties, said Singhvi.
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The bench said even the media, under Article 19(1)(a) (freedom of speech and expression) of the Constitution, does not have higher powers and “the political persons are also citizens and as a citizen they are subject to similar rules”.
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The senior lawyer said he was not seeking any particular relief in a particular case and the parties, which represent 42 per cent of the electorate in the country, wanted prospective guidelines of pre and post-arrest procedures to be adopted by the central probe agencies.
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“I am asking for the guidelines for the future. This is a remarkable convergence of 14 parties against the misuse of the agencies, both CBI and ED,” Singhvi had said, and claimed that 95 per cent cases of the CBI and the ED are against the leaders of Opposition parties. He pointed out that the rise in the number of cases filed by the CBI and the ED after the Modi-led NDA Government came to power in 2014.
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“Second statistics, pre-2014 and post-2014: there is a humongous jump in cases. The rate of conviction is four to five per cent. We are asking for pre-arrest guidelines and post-arrest bail guidelines,” said Singhvi . Besides the Congress, the parties to the petition included the DMK, RJD, BRS, Trinamool Congress, AAP, NCP, Shiv Sena (UBT), JMM, JD(U), CPI(M), CPI, Samajwadi Party and the J&K National Conference.
Source: Daily Pioneer
