SC notice to Mayawati, CBI on plea to lodge fresh FIR against her

More than one-and-a-half years after the disproportionate assets case against Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati was quashed, the Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to her and the Central Bureau of Investigation on a plea for registration of a fresh FIR against her.

Holding that CBI should have got proper advice for registration of a fresh case against her after the apex court quashed the FIR on technical ground, a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam sought response from the former UP chief minister and the agency within four weeks.

The bench brushed aside the stiff opposition put forward by senior advocate and BSP member Satish Mishra who opposed the plea, saying it is politically motivated.

"We expected that CBI should have got proper advice and acted on that basis," the bench said, indirectly referring to its 2012 verdict by which it had quashed the DA case against Mayawati merely on technical grounds and leaving the option open to the agency to lodge a fresh case against her.

"It is not for the court to pass order on every aspect," the bench said.

"Is it always the duty of the court to direct CBI," the court asked.

By its July 2012 verdict, the court had quashed a nine-year-long DA case against Mayawati on the ground the agency proceeded against her without properly understanding its 2003 orders which were confined to the Taj Corridor case relating to release of Rs 17 crore by UP government allegedly without sanction.

Thereafter, in May 2013, while reserving its decision on a plea seeking review of its July 2012 judgement, the apex court had clarified that its earlier verdict has not taken away CBI's power to proceed against her in a separate DA case.

On August 8, 2013, the apex court had declined to review its judgement quashing the DA case against her.