Delhi HC seeks status report on CM probe

New Delhi, September 1

The Delhi High Court today held as “maintainable” its proceedings against Himachal Pradesh CM  Virbhadra Singh, accused of amassing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income, and directed the CBI and Income Tax Department to file status reports on their probe.

“When the court itself has taken up the issue on its own, then where is the question of maintainability. Therefore, the maintainability of the present matter is no more an issue before this court,” a Bench of Justices BD Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva said.

The Bench was hearing accusations against Singh of amassing assets beyond his known sources of income during his earlier tenure as the Chief Minister and a Union Minister in UPA-II. He was accused of involvement in corruption, money laundering and forgery, a charge denied by him.

A PIL on the issue was filed by an NGO, Common Cause, but Singh had challenged the maintainability of the petition, saying it was filed through advocate Prashant Bhushan with a “motive” as the state government has initiated action against him in a land allotment matter.

Taking his submission on record, the high court had on March 26 passed a detailed order discharging common cause from the matter and had appointed two advocates as amicus curiae (friends of court) to assist it in deciding the maintainability plea.

When the matter came up for hearing, Singh’s counsel and senior advocate Salman Khurshid raised the maintainability issue, insisting the Delhi HC should not hear it as the matter was already being heard by the Himachal HC. He said since the cause of actions has arisen in HP it has nothing to do with the Delhi HC.

The Bench did not agree saying the case’s maintainability was taken care of as the Delhi HC had decided to go ahead with the allegations against Singh after keeping away the NGO, Common Cause and Prashant Bhushan. — PTI