SC to hear pleas by Maharashtra government, Anil Deshmukh against CBI probe on April 8

Anil Deshmukh has resigned from the post of Maharashtra Home Minister

The Supreme Court is to hear on Thursday a plea by the Maharashtra government as well as former state home minister Anil Deshmukh against the Bombay High Court order of preliminary enquiry by the CBI into corruption allegations made by former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Hemant Gupta would take two separate petitions filed by the Maha Vikas Aghadi government and Deshmukh, an NCP leader.

In their plea, the petitioners contended the High Court in its order on April 5 relied upon false, motivated, baseless and belated allegations made on the basis of purely hearsay evidence to order a probe into the matter, causing irreparable damage to the reputation of the state as well as the individual.

A bench of the Bombay High Court comprising Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice G S Kulkarni had on Monday asked the CBI to complete its 'preliminary probe' within 15 days on the issues, including Rs 100 crore collection target by Deshmukh.

Hours after the court verdict, Deshmukh resigned from his post.

In the petition, Deshmukh as the state government sought an immediate stay and setting aside the order by the High Court.

They claimed the order by the High Court was without hearing the parties, resulting in drastic consequences on the reputation of the then Minister, and state agencies.

The plea also claimed had the High Court issued notice to the petitioner as well as the state government, they would have demonstrated that the allegations by Singh could not be accepted at face value and why such allegations cannot be acted upon.

Raising question mark on the CBI, it claimed independence of the outside agency has been a cause of concern, particularly when the state had withdrawn its consent to the central agency to investigate offences under its territory.

"The High Court reposed faith in "an independent investigating agency", knowing full well about its credential in the past," it added.

The plea further contended if the High Court really wanted, it could have ordered the probe by the state agencies under its own monitoring.

Deshmukh, in his plea, also said the reason why the High Court passed the order did no longer survived as he has resigned from the post. He also submitted that the former Commissioner referred to conversations by others which was purely hearsay without any substantive basis.

After his transfer, the then Mumbai Police Commissioner on March 20 triggered a massive political storm in Maharashtra with his letter raising grave allegations against the then Home Minister.

On his plea for CBI probe into the charges, the top court on March 24 Wednesday asked Singh to approach the Bombay High Court, saying "the matter was quite serious and affected the administration" but "the High Court has the requisite authority to address the issue".