Court notice to Centre on petition seeking norms for conducting raids

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday sought a response from the central government on a PIL seeking framing of guidelines on how the CBI, Enforcement Directorate and other law enforcement agencies should go about in conducting raids, searches, and seizures of documents and unaccounted cash and valuables.

Issuing notice to the government, the bench of Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Prafulla C. Pant said, “We will examine it.”

Appearing for the PIL petitioner Upender Rai, senior counsel Rajeev Dhavan said authorities were misusing these raids to harass the people under the scanner.

Rai, while seeking framing of the guidelines, referred to several instance including that of Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh whose house and offices were raided on the day his daughter was getting married.

After the raids at the residence and office of Virbhadra Singh, the CBI had conducted raids at several places in New Delhi, Chandigarh and several other places in Haryana on the suspicion that when former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was in power, he had pressured farmers to sell their lands to real estate people on the threats that if they did not do so, their lands would be acquired.

Similarly, there was a hue and cry over following raids the office of senior Delhi government official. Initially, this matter was listed before the bench headed by Chief Justice T.S. Thakur last week but he recused himself from hearing the matter citing his long-standing acquaintance with Virbhadra Singh.