The state govt on Wednesday took a u-turn over CBI's jurisdiction to probe the Adarsh Housing Society scam. It had earlier opposed the central agency probing the scam. A division bench of justices PV Hardas and Anuja Prabhudessai was hearing several public interest litigations and petitions on the scam pertaining to a 31-storey building in south Mumbai.
CBI counsel Hiten Venegaonkar informed the court that it had completed the probe and filed charge sheets in the special court. "As the investigation is over and charge sheets filed, there is no need for further supervision," said Venegaonkar.
To this, Anil Sakhare, counsel for the state, said that if the investigation was over the govt had no objection to the trial court looking into the matter.
The state govt, in July 2012, had challenged a probe by the CBI saying that neither had the govt passed a resolution handing over the probe to the agency nor had HC passed any order to that effect.
Also, a former chief minister, an accused in the case, had filed a petition challenging CBI's jurisdiction.
However, on Wednesday, the govt accepted CBI's jurisdiction by leaving it to the trial court to take a decision on the issue.
The HC was hearing application by activist Pravin Wategaonkar seeking directive to the CBI to produce the evidence it had gathered in its investigation into the Adarsh scam on the basis of which it had given a clean chit to former Maharashtra CM Sushilkumar Shinde.
This petition was tagged on to another one filed by Wategaonkar in July 2013, which had sought to make Shinde an accused in the case.
However, in its reply on Oct 9, 2013, CBI gave a clean chit to Shinde saying it had probed the case and found the evidence against the former Union home minister "deficient and insufficient".
The petitioner said the Adarsh Commission, in its report tabled before the Maharashtra legislature, had observed that Shinde, in his capacity as the CM, had failed to pay attention to a suggestion by the finance dept against allotting land to the Adarsh Housing Society.
The petitioner further said that Adarsh Commission report had also concluded that "Shinde had failed to note this and acted in undue haste to bestow benefit on the society".
Seeking the court's directive to CBI to produce all evidence it had gathered, Wategaonkar argued that though the central agency had not found any evidence against Shinde, the Adarsh panel has stated that Shinde had failed to act in the case.
CBI had stated in its affidavit filed in the high court last year that there was no evidence to suggest that Shinde, during his tenure as Maharashtra CM, had abused his position.
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