Bombay High Court to Pronounce Order on Param Bir Singh's PIL Seeking Probe Against Anil Deshmukh, on Monday

The Bombay High Court will pronounce its order, on Monday, on a criminal PIL by shunted out Mumbai Commissioner - Param Bir Singh- seeking a CBI probe for alleged malpractices against Maharashtra's Home Minister Anil Deshmukh. A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice GS Kulkarni reserved its order on Singh's plea, on Wednesday, along with three other petitions following arguments on the admission of the matter, the State's preliminary objection on maintainability of the petition and prayers for interim reliefs. During the marathon hearing, which lasted over six hours, the bench expressed its dilemma over passing an order for an investigation in the absence of an FIR. "An FIR is the first step into setting the criminal law in motion," CJ Datta observed. Justice Datta frowned at the practice of approaching the Courts seeking directions for independent probe, without even approaching the police to register an FIR. The bench observed that just writing letters to the CM (as Param Bir had done), wasn't enough. "You (Param Bir Singh) are a police officer. If you find an offence has been committed you are duty-bound to file an FIR. Why did you not do it? You are failing in your duty if you don't file an FIR when you know an offence has been committed. Simply writing letters to the CM won't do." The Advocate General raised a preliminary objection of maintainability of Singh's PIL stating that the latter is "vitally interested" in both the prayers in the PIL. In his PIL, Singh has sought an "immediate, unbiased, uninfluenced impartial and fair investigation on the various corrupt malpractices of Anil Deshmukh before evidences are destroyed." And further sought a direction to the state government that police officials are not transferred for any pecuniary benefits to any politicians or in contravention of the guidelines issued in Prakash Singh & others vs Union of India. Senior Advocate Vikram Nankani, appearing for Param Bir Singh insisted that the allegations have been levelled by a person who occupied the "highest police post" and it is something that needs to be looked into by an independent investigating agency. Nankani said he was only seeking an independent inquiry by the CBI if an investigation was not possible. The other pleas were filed by Vinod Dubey, advocates Jaishri Patil and Ghanshyam Upadhyay and CA Mohan Bhide. However, only Patil had approached the Malabar Hill Police for registration of an FIR. On an enquiry made by the court, it was revealed that the Malabar Hill Police had not even recorded Patil's complaint in their station diary. The court also heard Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh for CBI, who did not object to taking over the probe. Param Bir Singh was represented by Senior Advocates Vikram Nankani, Birendra Saraf and Sharan Jagtiani along with advocate Subodh Desai, Sunny Punamia and Akshay Bafna.

Bombay High Court to Pronounce Order on Param Bir Singh's PIL Seeking Probe Against Anil Deshmukh, on Monday

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