SC REJECTS PIL SEEKING PROBE INTO BRIBES TO MODI, OTHERS

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court ruled out a probe on Wednesday into alleged bribe paid to several political leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

It said democracy can’t survive if investigation is ordered on “flimsy” grounds against constitutional functionaries.

The top court’s decision is viewed as a setback for Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi who had accused Modi of “personal corruption” based on the allegations and demanded an investigation.

A bench headed by justice Arun Misra dismissed a public interest petition filed by an NGO, Common Cause, and held the purported evidence presented before it was insufficient and inadmissible. “Court has to be on guard while ordering investigation against any important constitutional functionary in the absence of any cogent material or documents or on the basis of which investigation is irrelevant and not admissible as evidence,” the bench said.

Common Cause’s petition cited entries that were made in the diaries of two corporate houses that gave names of politicians who had received payoffs from the companies. These documents were recovered during income tax raids.

Gandhi counted on these papers to cast aspersions on the integrity of the Prime Minister, who rode to power two years ago vowing to stamp out corruption.

But the top court said the entries in the diaries were insufficient evidence. It accepted attorney general Mukul Rohatgi’s contention that “loose papers” and “irrelevant material” can’t be a basis for an inquiry. “In such cases, the process of law can be abused very easily to achieve ulterior goals and no democracy can survive in case investigations are set in motion on the basis of flimsy grounds without there being any cogent material or resources,” the bench said.

The court pointed out that the petition mostly relied on entries made in excel sheets seized from the company’s premises by the income tax department and these were not in books of accounts.