In a major respite to Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati, the Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed an application challenging the refusal of the state Governor TV Rajeshwar to sanction her prosecution in the Rs 175-crore Taj corridor case.
A three-member special environment bench of Justices SB Sinha, SH Kapadia and DK Jain said the correctness or otherwise of the Governor?s action should be better left to the decision of the special judge, CBI, which is dealing with the alleged scandal.
??This court should not take upon itself the task of determining the guilt or otherwise of an individual involved in the criminal proceedings. It should not embark upon an inquiry in regard to the allegations of criminal misconduct so as to form an opinion one way or the other so as to prima facie determine the guilt of a person or otherwise,?? the bench remarked.
Counsel Krishna Mahajan appearing before the bench had earlier moved separate applications challenging the refusal of Governor’s decision to accord the sanction.
Asserting that the judiciary may step in where it finds the action of the legislature/ executive illegal or unconstitutional, the apex court felt that public interest litigation, however, should not be converted into an adversarial litigation.
?PTI
