The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to entertain a petition filed by 14 political parties, led by the Congress, alleging that the central investigating agencies are being weaponized by the government to target opposition leader.
A division bench of Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice J.B. Pardiwala said the court cannot issue general directions without a factual context. The court said it can intervene only in an individual case. It further said that political leaders cannot claim a higher immunity than ordinary citizens and hence a special set of guidelines cannot be issued for them, reported Live Law.
Following the apex court’s observations, the opposition parties withdrew their petition. “You please come back to us when you have an individual criminal case or group of cases,” the bench said.
The plea alleged an alarming rise in the use of coercive criminal processes against opposition political leaders and other citizens exercising their fundamental right to dissent.
Alleging that 95 per cent of the cases were against Opposition leaders, senior advocate AM Singhvi had said asking for guidelines with regard to arrest, remand and bail to be followed by the prosecuting agencies and courts. He, however, had clarified that “We’re not trying to affect the existing investigations.”
The petitioners had alleged that many Opposition leaders had been arbitrarily arrested by the Central probe agencies.
They had alleged misuse of Central investigating agencies such as Enforcement Directorate and Central Bureau of Investigation in arresting Opposition political leaders and other citizens exercising their fundamental right to dissent and disagree with the present Union Government.
Investigating agencies such as CBI and ED were being increasingly deployed in a “selective and targeted” manner to completely crush political dissent and upend the fundamental premises of a representative democracy, they alleged.
Besides the Congress, the parties that 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.
