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SC to Centre: File Cabinet's report on Chawla

The SC told the government to furnish to it the Cabinet advice to the President on the petition for removal of EC Navin Chawla.

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NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday sternly told the government to furnish to it the Cabinet advice to the President on the petition for removal of Election Commissioner Navin Chawla.

"File the advice submitted to the President," a bench comprising Justice Ashok Bhan and Justice Dalveer Bhandari told Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam when he said it had been given to the President.

"After the RTI Act, I don't know what privileges you have, but we would like to see the file," the bench told him sternly when Subramaniam contended that it was a privileged document and he has to check whether it can be produced in the court.

The court was hearing a PIL filed by senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh which has sought Chawla's removal on the ground that he would not be able to discharge his duties impartially in view of several allegations of impropriety levelled against him.

Singh alleged that the government adopted the wrong procedure for giving advice to the President by referring the matter to the Union Cabinet instead of referring it to the EC.

The BJP leader referred to the representation of 205 NDA MPs for Chawla's removal which said that he would not be able to do his job in a fair and unbiased manner as the Trust run by his wife took donations from Congress MPs' MPLAD funds.

The petition contended that under Article 324 (5), the Centre was under Constitutional obligation to refer the memorandum seeking Chawla's removal to the EC.

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