IAS officer Pradeep Sharma, who has sought a CBI enquiry into the unauthorised surveillance by the Narendra Modi Government against him and a woman, was denied permission to go abroad even as the court warned him that his petition should not contain any “scurrilous” remarks against the Gujarat Chief Minister.
The direction from the court came despite its order of 2011 when it asked Sharma to remove all scurrilous references to Modi. Senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, who appeared for Gujarat Government, alleged that the petitioner had reintroduced the personal remarks against Modi in the amended petition filed subsequent to the court order.
Jethmalani informed the court that before issuing notice on the petition, it had directed Sharma to remove the offending paragraphs and file an amended petition. “The petitioners have failed to do it till date and are in contempt of the court’s order,” he said. Advocate Prashant Bhushan, who appeared for the IAS officer, explained that only the gist of the allegations was reproduced in the amended plea. This was material to establish the mala fide of the State Government headed by Narendra Modi, he added.
The bench of Justices Ranjana P Desai and Madan B lokur said that on the next date of hearing it would compare the paragraphs in the amended petition with the original one to examine compliance of its order. The matter will be taken up after two weeks. Sharma had sought permission to travel to US but the State government opposed this plea claiming he was accused in five cases. Although the SC granted him bail in a fake passport case, the bench found it difficult to grant his request to travel abroad till the cases got over.