"Politics being brought to us in garb of cases": Supreme Court on plea by former Chhattisgarh Principal Secretary

The Supreme Court on Friday took exception to the trend of politics shaping its way into courtrooms under the garb of legal proceedings..A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha made the observation while considering a plea filed by former Chhattisgarh Principal Secretary Aman Singh and his wife Yasmin Singh seeking the transfer of all disproportionate assets cases against them to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).When Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, appearing for the petitioners, submitted that there was harassment and that the wife's mother's pension account was sealed by the government, Justice Narasimha responded saying, "It is not like we cannot see what is happening; increasing instances of politics being brought into this court in the garb of cases. It is all politics, but in this case all of this was heard and argued.""All of these issues were argued before this court. This is not a case for a transfer before us," CJI Chandrachud added..The Singhs, subsequently, withdrew their petition..In March this year, the Supreme Court had set aside a January 2022 decision of the Chhattisgarh High Court quashing FIRs against the petitioners under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. At the time, there was a BJP-led government in the State. The current Congress-led government resumed the probe in the matter after the High Court's order from January, leading to the present plea.The Singhs sought to transfer of all the disproportionate assets cases against them to the CBI, as well as a stay on all the proceedings against them. .At today's hearing, Senior Advocate Aryama Sundaram, appearing for a petitioners submitted that the current probe has affected the petitioners' lives in a multitude of ways."Our life is being made hell. The ED has shown documents showing that there are whatsapp chats with state government officials trying to create difficulties for us. The Economic Offences Wing also involved. My wife has a kathak dance group and all refuse to be part of that group now citing all of this," he said..On the other hand, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the State of Chhattigarh, argued that the case for transfer was entirely malafide."This case is like seeing review of that earlier order. This very man and this is a disproportionate case, see what happened. Supreme Court considered all these arguments and rejected the case. This person was an Income tax officer earlier, then was with the CM. This is an abuse of the process and costs should be imposed now.".The bench concurred with Sibal's contention and refused to order a stay on the proceedings against the Singhs or transfer the cases against them to the CBI. Following this, the plea was withdrawn by the Singhs.