JOIN USThe Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a PIL charging UPA’s presidential nominee Pranab Mukherjee with corrupt practices to garner votes before his resignation as finance minister.
Rejecting the plea, a bench of justices Aftab Alam and H L Gokhale said the court cannot be allowed to be used as a theatre for farcical play.
The court wanted to impose Rs 50,000 cost on petitioner advocate M L Sharma but relented only after he pleaded for mercy. The bench, however, warned him that similar pleas would be saddled with heavy cost in future.
The bench described as “fantastic and unacceptable” the contention of Sharma who wanted a direction to be issued against the government for an enquiry against Mukherjee under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, for securing support of various MLAs/MPs for his presidential election during his tenure as the finance minister.
The advocate said that Mukherjee could not start his canvassing while still being the finance minister for July 19 elections for the post of President.
The court, however, trashed his contention as “worthless” saying that if a person was a candidate, then he was supposed to approach MPs and legislators for their support.