Jolt to opposition: SC dismisses petition against 'misuse' of CBI, ED by Centre; says politicians can't claim higher immunity

A division bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice JB Pardiwala expressed disinclination to entertain the petition by saying that it cannot issue general directions without a factual context.

New Delhi:In a major setback for the opposition parties, the Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to hear a petition filed by various political parties alleging that probe agencies such as the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) were being used by the central government to target the opposition leaders and settle political scores.

The bench led by Chief Justice of India, DY Chandrachud, refused to entertain the petition filed by 14 political parties led by the Indian National Congress. The bench also comprising Justice PS Narasimha and Justice JB Pardiwala said that the petition deals with only politicians and there is no individual grievance, so they can't lay a general guideline for investigations against the politicians. It said that politicians have no immunity against the investigation and ultimately the politician is governed by the same law.

"Once we accept that political leaders are absolutely on the same footing as common citizens with no higher immunity...then how can we say there can be no arrests unless there is a three-pronged test which satisfied," said CJI Chandrachud. The political parties had presented statistics according to which 95% of cases that were registered by the CBI and ED against political leaders had opposition leader as the accused.

Senior Advocate AM Singhvi appearing for the parties told the court that there has been a 600% increase in CBI and ED cases against the opposition leaders. The court said that the petitioners are trying to extrapolate the statistics into legal guidelines but that can not be done since these statistics relate to just politicians.

Singhvi said that 14 parties represent 42% of the electorates and harassing them means people are affected. He argued that there is a skewed application of 95% cases and this leads to skewed levelled uneven democratic playing field. He contended that these cases affect the pending cases in India as well and if the statistics show an uneven application of law then they are just seeking guidelines prospective.

The CJI said that political leaders stand on the same footing as the citizens. He said that framing any guidelines would mean doing the job of the legislature. Court said that in case of any grievances by an individual, the person can approach the High Court, pursue legal remedies. "We will not entertain this. If you want to withdraw, then withdraw, come in individual case or group of cases..we will certainly deal with it. The problem is that SC laying down guidelines in abstract form without individual cases.....I spoke about bail being the norm in Arnab Goswami and Zubair case but they were case specific," said CJI.

He said that once they have facts about the group of cases they can lay down a general guideline else not because it will be dangerous. Advocate Singhvi then proceeded to withdraw the plea. The 14 political parties forming the petitioners included Indian National Congress, DMK, RJD, BRS, Trinamool Congress, AAP, NCP, Shiv Sena (UBT), JMM, JD(U), CPI(M), CPI, Samajwadi Party, and J&K National Conference.