SC clarifies verdict on Mayawati relates to Taj corridor case

The Supreme Court on Thursday clarified that its judgement on former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati was only in Taj Corridor case and it did not go into other aspects including merits of allegation of disproportionate assets amassed by the Bahujan Samaj Party supremo.

A bench of Chief Justice P Sathasivam and Justice Deepak Misra passed the order disposing of a petition seeking review of its order in which Disproportionate Assets case against Mayawati was quashed.

"We reiterate that our decision is based on Taj Corridor case," the bench said while reading out a portion from the verdict.

The BSP claimed the judgement has come as a relief to Mayawati. The BSP chief's counsel Satish Chandra Mishra claimed after the order that the review petition has not been entertained and the "illegal" DA case filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation against Mayawati has come to a closure.

The court passed the order on the review petition filed by Uttar Pradesh resident, Kamlesh Verma who was an intervener in the case filed by Mayawati in the apex court for quashing the DA case against her.

While reserving its verdict on May 1, the bench had said that the first information report in the DA case was quashed because the CBI proceeded against her without properly understanding its orders which were confined to Taj Corridor case.

It had said that the judgement had not taken away CBI's power to proceed against her in a separate DA case. The Supreme Court had on July 6, last year quashed the nine-year-long disproportionate assets case against her and had pulled up the CBI for exceeding its jurisdiction by lodging an FIR against her without any direction from it.

The apex court had said the DA case against Mayawati was "unwarranted" and that the agency proceeded against her without properly understanding its orders which were confined to Taj Corridor case relating to the release of Rs 17 crore by the UP government allegedly without sanction. ministries.