SC reserves verdict on former SP MLA's plea

The Supreme Court on Monday reserved its verdict on a plea by a former Samajwadi Party member of Legislative Assembly seeking to set aside the directions issued against him by the Allahabad high court in a case of alleged illegal confinement of a girl in which Rahul Gandhi's name was dragged.

Kishore Samrite, a former MLA from Madhya Pradesh, has challenged Rs 50 lakh fine imposed on him by the high court for approaching it with these allegations. The high court on March 7, 2011 had also directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to register a case against Samrite and to find out as to under what circumstances the PIL was filed.

A Bench comprising justices B S Chauhan and Swatanter Kumar concluded the hearing by saying that it will consider all the legal issues on which the High Court decision has been challenged.

"We will discuss all the legal issues," the bench said while making it clear that it will not go into any of the averments made against the High Court judges who passed the directions.

Samrite, who is facing a CBI probe for dragging Rahul Gandhi's name in the case, has submitted that the high court wrongly dismissed his petition by imposing exemplary costs of Rs 50 lakh.

He insisted that his petition was maintainable and that the division bench of the high court exceeded its jurisdiction by transferring the matter from a single bench to itself.

Advocate Kamini Jaiswal, appearing for him, told a bench that the High Court erroneously tagged his petition with another depriving him of his right to be heard. She said the two petitions were different in nature and the names of persons in illegal confinement mentioned in them were different.

Jaiswal said the three persons, i.e, the girl and her parents produced before the high court, were different from what Samrite had mentioned in his petition. CBI had told the Supreme Court that its probe has found that the case against Gandhi was based on 'non-existent' claims.

Gandhi's counsel P P Rao had said Samrite's petition was politically motivated ato tarnish the image of the young politician. Rao also had raised objections to the averments made by Samrite in his affidavit saying nobody can accuse the judges of being biased.

Samrite said that CBI did not follow the proper procedure in probing the case and registered the regular case without making a preliminary inquiry.