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SC dismisses plea by 14 oppn parties alleging 'misuse' of central probe agencies

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Shailesh Khanduri
New Update
Supreme Court of India

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a plea by 14 opposition parties, led by the Congress, alleging arbitrary use of central probe agencies against political opponents.

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A bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud told the opposition’s counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi that the court will not entertain this petition. 

“You can come to us in an individual case. Come to us with one or more cases together. Our problem is, for SC to lay down guidelines in abstract without factual basis,” CJI said. 

"All our judgments on bail are in the context of facts. We can't give general guidelines divorced from facts. How do we lay down? If an individual comes to us, we dealt with in one of your own cases, then it will be confined to the facts of the case. In the absence of specific facts to lay down general guidelines will be dangerous," CJI added before passing the judgement on the petition.

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The bench then ordered, “After some deliberations, Dr Singhvi seeks liberty to withdraw the petition at this stage. The petition is accordingly dismissed as withdrawn.”

Earlier, CJI Chandrachud told Singhvi during the argument that the political leaders stand absolutely on the same standing as the citizens of the country. 

"They don't claim higher identity. How can there be a different set of procedure for them? The problem of your petition is that you are trying to extrapolate statistics into guidelines. Statistics may be relating only to politicians. But there can't be guidelines only applying to politicians," CJI remarked.

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On Singhvi's argument that mass arrests is a threat to democracy and a sign of authoritarianism, CJI said, "When you say that space for opposition has shrunk, the remedy is in that space, the political space. Not the Court."

The plea alleged there is an alarming rise in the use of coercive criminal processes against opposition political leaders and other citizens exercising their fundamental right to dissent.

Besides the Congress, other parties who are part of the joint move are the DMK, RJD, BRS, Trinamool Congress, AAP, NCP, Shiv Sena (UBT), JMM, JD(U), CPI(M), CPI, Samajwadi Party and the J&K National Conference.















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