Bombay High Court dismisses PIL alleging Uddhav Thackeray, family hold disproportionate assets

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) petition seeking a probe into the allegations of disproportionate assets belonging to former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and his family members hold [Gouri Bhide v. Union of India & Ors.].A division bench of Justices Dhiraj Singh Thakur and Valimiki SA Menezes observed that the petition as well as the complaint was 'bereft of any evidence' which would compel the court to intervene and conclude that a prima facie case was made out for an investigation by CBI or any other central agency. "There is absolutely no evidence or live link between the alleged malpractices in BMC and private respondents. The Petitioners are attempting to seek a roving probe, monitored by this Court into the suspicions so entertained by the Petitioners based on nothing but bald allegations", the 22 page order said.The division bench more specifically turned down the argument of the petitioner that the alleged corruption in Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the sudden rise in the assets of Thackeray family are linked."On a reading of the complaint and the petition, it appears that the petitioners are only speculating on the sudden rise in the prosperity index of the private respondents (Thackeray family) from their humble beginning and, therefore entertain a suspicion that the life style maintained by the respondents could only be attributed to the corrupt practices in BMC," the division bench said..The division bench imposed a cost of ₹25,000 on Bhide as costs to be deposited with the Advocates Welfare Fund for abusing process of law. "We hold that the present petition is nothing but an abuse of the process of law which is, accordingly, dismissed, with costs of Rs.25,000/- to be deposited by the petitioners in the Advocates Welfare Fund within a period of two months", the court ordered..The petitioner in person, Gouri Bhide, claimed that though Thakceray, his son Aditya, and wife Rashmi never disclosed any service, profession or business as their official source of income, they hold properties worth crores in Mumbai and Raigad districts.Bhide further expressed astonishment at periodicals 'Marmik' and 'Saamna' - run by Thackeray family - showing a huge turnover of ₹42 crores and booking a profit of ₹11.5 crores during COVID-19 lockdown, when other print media faced losses. .Bhide claimed that she had approached the Commissioner of Mumbai Police with a complaint which was also forwarded to Economic Offences Wing (EOW). However, no action was taken and she was not informed about the status of her complaint either. This prompted her to file the PIL. She sought directions to the State to take cognisance of the complaint filed with Mumbai Police and to the respondent agencies to submit status of investigation every month to the court..Senior Advocates Aspi Chinoy and Ashok Mundargi appearing for Thackeray family argued that there was a hierarchy of officials and proper process has to be followed. Chinoy argued that while High Courts could intervene and initiate criminal procedure, there was no reason to not follow the procedure. The petitioner had failed to show extra-ordinary circumstances in the petition filed, Chinoy said. Chinoy also stated that just because a paper publication was making profits would not imply there was corruption in the publication.Mundargi added that for any court to intervene, there must be a cognizable offence. .The Mumbai Police informed in December 2022 that it had initiated a preliminary probe into the allegations. Chief Public Prosecutor Aruna Pai informed the Court that the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) had initiated preliminary enquiry into the allegations made by the petitioner in the PIL.The petitioner maintained that she was never informed of the enquiry and prayed that probe should be transferred to a Central government agency..[Read order]