In major relief to former Uttar Pradesh CM Mayawati, the Supreme Court Thursday brought to a closure a nine-year-old disproportionate assets case against her by dismissing a plea seeking a direction to the CBI to reopen the case.
A bench of Chief Justice P. Sathasivam and Justice Dipak Misra dismissed the plea seeking a review of its previous order quashing the disproportionate assets case. The bench clarified its earlier 2003 order which said the CBI was free to probe charges against Ms Mayawati was only for the Taj Corridor case, and the court didn’t go into aspects of the DA case.
“It is made clear we have not gone into any other aspect relating to the claim of the CBI, intervenor or the stand of Mayawati except the directions (on) the Taj Heritage Corridor Project, which was the only (dispute) before us,” the bench said. “We once again reiterate that our decision is based on earlier directions relating to the Taj Heritage Corridor Project, particularly the order dated September 18, 2003, the contents of the FIR, the relief prayed in the writ petition filed before this court, and we have not said or expressed anything beyond the subject matter of the dispute,” it said.
The Supreme Court had July 6 quashed the assets case against Ms Mayawati, pulling up the CBI for exceeding its jurisdiction by lodging an FIR without any direction from it. In filing a fresh FIR, the CBI apparently misunderstood the SC order directing the agency was free to probe charges against her in the Taj Corridor case.