Adarsh scam: Ex-Maha CM Ashok Chavan moves SC against HC order

New DelhiFormer Maharashtra Chief MinisterAshok Chavan on Monday moved the Supreme Court against a BombayHigh Court decision dismissing his plea seeking recall of anearlier order by which it had denied deletion of his namefrom list of accused in the multicrore Adarsh housing societyscam caseA bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar agreed to hear onApril 24 the plea of the Congress leader against the HighCourt order and asked Maharashtras counsel to take anadjournment in the hearing before the trial court in the caseAshok ChavanSenior advocates Kapil Sibal and Salman Khurshid formerLaw Minister and External Affairs Minister respectivelyassailed the order of the high court against their partycolleague ChavanI have a problem with the impugned order The specialJudge states that the congnizance of the offence againstChavan has not been taken The High Court states that thecognizance has been taken Sibal saidThe High Courts order that cognizance of the offence hasalready been taken is erroneous as for taking judicial noteof the crime a trial court will have to issue processsummon he said adding that this was not doneSibal said a separate plea challenging constitutionalvalidity of section 131d of the Prevention of CorruptionPC Act under which Chavan is also charged is pending withthe apex court on the ground that it can be invoked withoutthe accused having mens rea intention to commit anoffenceThe plea challenging the validity of the PC Act provisionwas recently filed by Hindalco Industries Ltd in a coal blockallocation case in which former Prime Minister Manmohan Singhwas also made an accused The apex court had later stayed thetrial court proceedings in the matterThe bench today asked senior advocate Shekhar Naphadeappearing for Maharashtra to respond to the plea of ChavanEarlier the High Court had dismissed Chavans appeal torecall an earlier order refusing to delete his name from theAdarsh Housing Society scam caseChavan had filed the plea in the High Court in December last year seeking to recall an order passed by it refusing CBI the permission to drop his name from the Adarsh caseThe HC order refusing to recall the earlier ruling hadpaved way for Chavans prosecution under the Prevention ofCorruption Act for allegedly misusing his official position togrant favours to the Adarsh society meant exclusively fordefence personnelThe CBI had first approached the trial court seeking todrop Chavans name as an accused on the ground that theGovernor had refused to sanction his prosecution As the CBIcourt rejected it the agency moved the HCHowever the High Court had dismissed CBIs applicationlast November after observing that the Governor had refusedsanction for prosecution for conspiracy charge under theIndian Penal Code IPC but he can still be prosecuted underthe Prevention of Corruption ActThe chargesheet not only alleges conspiracy but alsorefers to Chavans individual acts when he was the RevenueMinister and later the Chief Minister HC judge had saidCharges levelled against Chavan for the allegedindividual acts cannot go away only because the Governor hasrefused to grant sanction for prosecuting him for conspiracyand cheating Justice Tahaliyani had saidAccording to CBI Chavan suggested inclusion of civilianmembers in the Adarsh housing society to get flats for his ownrelatives