PIL is sacred: Bombay High Court junks plea for CBI probe against BMC officers

The stream of public interest litigation (PIL) should be kept as sacred as possible and not misused, the Bombay High Court observed on Wednesday [Sanjay Kokate v. Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation & Ors.]..The Court made the observation while dismissing a PIL petition filed by one Sanjay Kokate, who had sought a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into allegations of corruption against certain Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officers..A division bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Arif Doctor remarked that such PILs unnecessarily eat into the court’s judicial time.“It is very easy to level allegations of bribes. But where is the proof? You should refrain before making such allegations. There is nothing on corruption. These kinds of PILs are unnecessarily eating our court's time. Please keep the stream of PIL as sacred as possible. It should not be made an instrument," the Court said..The petitioner, Kokate is the president of a charitable trust. He claimed to have filed several representations against BMC officers. He further stated that a businessman resident had also filed a complaint with the Mumbai police based on which a criminal complaint came to be registered. However the first information report (FIR) was lodged against only one of the accused BMC employees, the Court was told. Kokate added that investigation had not been done properly in the matter. Hence, the corruption of BMC officers remains unabated, he submitted.The Court quipped it was for the complainant to raise grievances about the investigation..It found that Kokate's petition only contained a narration of allegations, without enough material to substantiate them.Additionally, the Court stated that it could permit the transfer of an investigation to the CBI only in exceptional cases. No such circumstance was found in this case. “In very exceptional circumstances or cases, the Court while exercising jurisdiction under Article 226 can transfer investigation to CBI. However, before passing such an order, this Court needs to be satisfied of circumstances which exist warranting transfer of investigation of CBI. Such transfer of investigation of offences are normally permissible in case the reported offence has interstate or all India repercussions. In the entire petition, nothing has been brought to our notice to persuade us to transfer investigation to CBI," the Court recorded in the order passed today. .In view of this, the Court proceeded to dismiss the PIL petition.