HC reserves order on PIL seeking probe against Pawars over Lavasa; inclined to dismiss, court says

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday reserved its ruling on a PIL seeking a CBI probe against Sharad Pawar and his family members over alleged illegal permissions given to the Lavasa hill station project, while also indicating that it was inclined to dismiss the plea.

A bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad noted that petitioner Nanasaheb Jadhav, a lawyer, failed to show any legal provision whereby a court, while exercising its civil jurisdiction, can pass a direction to the police to register a First Information Report.

They would dismiss the public interest litigation, the judges said, but eventually reserved the judgment so that the lawyers of the petitioner and the NCP (SP) chief could submit case laws to support their respective arguments.

The bench did not specify when it would deliver the judgment.

Jadhav’s PIL sought a direction to the CBI to register a case against Sharad Pawar, his daughter and Baramati MP Supriya Sule, and his nephew and Maharashtra’s deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar for alleged illegal permissions given to construct a hill station at Lavasa in Pune district.

In February 2022, the High Court had refused to interfere when Jadhav had filed a petition seeking to declare the special permissions granted to Lavasa as illegal, but noted that there seemed to be some exertion of influence and clout by Sharad Pawar and his daughter.

In the fresh PIL filed in 2023 seeking a CBI probe, Jadhav said he had filed a complaint with the Pune police commissioner in December 2018 seeking a probe against Pawar and others, but the police took no action.

In March this year, Sharad Pawar filed an intervention application opposing the PIL, claiming that Jadhav had made similar or the same allegations again and again.