Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: In a setback for Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the CBI probe against the Samajwadi Party chief and his sons Akhilesh and Prateek Yadav in a disproportionate assets case would continue.
However, providing relief to the Yadav family the apex court dropped the case against Mulayam’s daughter-in-law and Akhilesh’s wife Dimple saying she was not a public servant when charges were made against her.
The SC said the CBI should independently probe the charges against the three and not report to the Centre on the case.
“CBI is independent from the government and can continue with the probe as per the law,” a bench of Chief Justice Altamas Kabir and Justice H L Dattu said.
The court however directed the CBI to file status report in the DA case before it and not to the government.
The SC verdict came on a plea by the Yadav family for review of its order for CBI probe against them for allegedly amassing disproportionate assets.
The SC bench had earlier reserved its order on February 17 last year.
The apex court had ordered a CBI inquiry on March 1, 2007 into the alleged accumulation of disproportionate assets by Yadav family, on a public interest litigation (PIL) by an advocate, Vishwanath Chaturvedi, reportedly a Congress leader.
Mulayam Singh has, meanwhile, welcomed the apex court judgement.
Deviating from the precedent of hearing review petitions in the judges’ chambers, the bench had heard the petition in open court at Yadavs’ request.
Seeking review of the apex court order, Yadav and his family members had submitted that there was no evidence against them and they are being harassed by political adversaries.
They assailed the apex court’s earlier order claiming it would “set a dangerous precedent” of allowing political opponents to file “false and frivolous” petitions against their detractors.
During the arguments, the Centre, while refraining from going into the merits of the allegations against the Yadavs, had cited a number of judicial pronouncements to drive home the point that the apex court has powers to order a CBI inquiry in “exceptional cases.”
(With PTI inputs)
First Published: Thursday, December 13, 2012, 09:05