JOIN USThe Supreme Court on Wednesday expressed its displeasure over suspended IAS officer Pradeep Sharma raising additional allegations of a personal nature against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his petition, which sought transfer of four criminal cases registered against him to the CBI.
A bench of Justices Ranjana Prakash Desai and N V Ramana once again asked the officer to comply with the apex court order of May 12, 2011, wherein he had assured the court that he would delete “scandalous” allegations from his petition.
“This is very sad. So far, we are informed you (Sharma) have not complied with the order,” the bench said, after Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for Gujarat, pointed out in a chart how the petitioner continued to raise similar insinuations.
“You added much more into it instead of deleting. Your amendment should be in tenor with the order of this court. It cannot be like this,” the bench told advocate Sunil Fernandes, representing Sharma.
The counsel, however, submitted, “We have undertaken to file the amended petition and not delete anything.” On this, the court said, “You cannot add something more while amending the petition. The allegations of personal nature must go.”Sharma’s amended petition carried details on the snooping allegedly involving then Gujarat home minister Amit Shah.
In his arguments, the counsel reiterated that the ground for seeking transfer of criminal cases against the petitioner was that he faced vendetta and personal malice in the state as he was supposed to carry certain personal knowledge.
Further, since Sharma’s elder brother Kuldeep Sharma, an IPS officer, was in conflict with the state, the petitioner had to face false charges, the counsel said. Fernandes then raised the issue of snooping, saying that in November 2013, the state government filed a plea that surveillance of the woman concerned was ordered at the instance of her father but this stand was never taken in 2011.