A week after it temporarily stayed his prosecution, the Bombay High Court on Wednesday directed Maharashtra’s former Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Ashok Chavan to have his say on the CBI’s submission that the Governor could not be made a respondent to his plea challenging the sanction to prosecute him in the Adarsh housing society scam case.
Hearing Chavan’s petition challenging Maharashtra Governor C Vidyasagar Rao’s decision to grant sanction to the CBI to prosecute him in the scam, a HC division Bench headed by Justice RV More gave this direction to the former Chief Minister.
The court’s direction to Chavan came after Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, appearing for the CBI, contended the Governor could not be made a respondent personally in a petition.
“The petitioner (Chavan) will have to delete the Governor’s name as respondent. The State Government will have to be impleaded as respondent,” Singh informed the court.
Following Singh’s submission, the HC Bench directed Chavan’s counsel Amit Desai to respond to the CBI’s stand and posted the matter for further hearing on July 3.
It may be recalled that on February 4 last year, Maharashtra Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao had granted sanction to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to prosecute the senior Congress leader in the Adarsh society scam case.
Based on a communication from the central agency seeking permission for the former Chief Minister’s prosecution and a subsequent recommendation to that effect made by the State Cabinet, the Governor had given a formal go-ahead to the CBI to prosecute under 197 of Cr.Pc for offences registered under Section 120-B (conspiracy) and 420 (cheating) of IPC in the Adarsh society scam.
Chavan, it may be recalled, had resigned as the chief minister on November 9, 2010, following the expose of the Adarsh society scam.
In its voluminous charge-sheet filed against him and 12 others in the Adarsh scam case before the special court on July 4, 2012, the CBI had formally charged Chavan with having conspired with three prime scam accused, that he, in his capacity as the Revenue Minister in year 2000, had “proposed” to the society’s managing committee to induct civilians as members in the Adarsh building with the “ulterior motive” of facilitating flat allotments to his relatives.
The CBI had also charged that Chavan — during his tenure as the Chief Minister in July 2009 — gave the Adarsh society a concession of 15 per cent Recreation Ground (RG) which had not been allowed by the previous Government. “In turn, Chavan got membership for his close relatives and thus abused his official position and favoured (Adarsh) society”, the charge-sheet had stated.
On his part, Chavan subsequently challenged the CBI’s move in the special court to include his name as an accused in the charge sheet on the ground that no sanction for prosecution had been obtained from the Governor. The CBI maintained that since he was a former chief minister at the time of being charge-sheeted, gubernatorial approval was not required.
However, the court directed the CBI to get sanction for Chavan’s prosecution from the Governor. After the CBI approached the then Governor K Sankaranarayanan for sanction for Chavan’s prosecution in the Adarsh scam case, the latter refused to grant sanction to the investigating agency.
While rejecting the CBI’s plea for sanction to prosecute Chavan, then Governor Sankaranarayanan had said in December 2013: “”Having considered the matter from all angles, the entire papers and documents, I do not find that even a prima facie case is made out”.
On March 4, 2015, the Bombay High Court rejected Chavan’s application seeking the recall of its earlier order disallowing the CBI from dropping his name from the charge-sheet in the Adarsh housing society scam case.
Chavan has challenged the Bombay High Court’s March 4, 2015 order rejecting his application seeking the recall of its earlier order disallowing the CBI from dropping his name from the charge-sheet in the Adarsh case.
However, the CBI on October 8, 2015 moved Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao seeking the latter’s sanction to prosecute Chavan. On February 4, 2016, Governor Rao granted sanction to the CBI to prosecute Chavan.