Lavasa project: HC dismisses PIL seeking probe against Pawars, Sule

The Bombay High Court on Monday dismissed a PIL seeking a CBI probe against NCP (SP) leader Sharad Pawar, his daughter and Baramati MP Supriya Sule, as well as his nephew and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar for alleged illegal permissions given to the Lavasa hill station project in Pune.

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.  Jadhav’s public interest litigation sought a direction to the Central Bureau of Investigation to register a case against Sharad Pawar, Sule and Ajit Pawar for alleged illegal permissions given to construct a hill station at Lavasa in Pune district.

In February 2022, the HC had refused to interfere when Jadhav had filed a petition seeking to declare the special permissions granted to Lavasa as illegal. The HC had, however, noted 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 Jadhav had made similar or the same allegations again and again.