The Supreme Court pulled up the CBI for "acting at the behest" of the Centre in the disproportionate assests case against former UP CM Mulayam Singh.
The CBI has come under a cloud after the Supreme Court lambasted it on Tuesday, saying it worked “at the behest of the Union government” while probing allegations of corruption against former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav and his family.
The court reserved its order on the CBI’s flip flops and fixed March 31 to hear Yadav’s plea for review of the court order directing CBI to investigate allegations levelled against Yadav in a writ petition by Congress activist Vishwanath Chaturvedi on March 1, 2007. The court had asked the CBI to submit its report to the Centre.
Tuesday’s proceedings focused on the CBI’s role in the case. A bench of justices Altmas Kabir and Cyriac Joseph told the CBI counsel, “You (CBI) are acting at the behest of central government and the law ministry. You are not acting on your own”.
Additional solicitor general (ASG) Mohan Parasaran conceded that the CBI had sought the law ministry’s opinion on whether to withdraw the agency’s earlier application seeking permission to file a report on inquiry before the apex court and not the Centre.
“You realise what you are saying. It is very unusual. It is because central government gave opinion you filed the interim application (for withdrawal of the earlier application seeking to file the report on inquiry to SC),” judges observed. “Why did you file the interim application after seeking opinion of the central government? It is incomprehensible,” an anguished bench added.
“Why did you go to the central government? You should have come to us (SC),” the Bench said. The judges wanted to know from Parasaran other grounds to support the application for withdrawal of CBI’s earlier plea.
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