Bombay HC Continues to Turn a Blind Eye to Adarsh Scam Petition

For the second time in a row, Bombay HC has recused itself from hearing a petition in the Adarsh Housing scam.

Bombay High Court has recused itself from hearing a petition that has come before it for the second time in a  row. The petition directs the CBI to produce evidence on the basis of which it had cleared former Maharashtra CM Sushil Kumar Shinde in the notorious Adarsh Housing Society scam.

Justice Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi, sitting in a division bench with Justice PV Hardas, said, “Not before us,” when the matter came up before them.

However, the bench did not assign any reason for not hearing the matter. This is the second time the HC has refused to hear this petition.

Second Time in a Row

In June last year, another bench of Justices, VM Kanade and PD Kode had recused itself from hearing the matter.

This petition was tagged on to another petition which had sought to make Shinde an accused in the Adarsh Housing scam case. The petition had been filed by activist Praveen Wategaonka in July 2013.

However, in its reply on October 9, 2013, the CBI gave a clean chit to Shinde, saying that they had probed the case and found evidence against the former Union Home Minister to be “deficient and insufficient.”

Petitioner Argument

The petitioner argued that Shinde, in his capacity as chief minister, had failed to pay attention to a suggestion given by the finance department against allotment of land to the Adarsh Housing Society. The Adarsh Commission had in fact made this observation in the report it had tabled before the Maharashtra Legislature.

The petitioner further said that the Adarsh Commission report had also concluded that “Shinde had failed to note this and acted in undue haste to bestow benefit on the society.”