Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi has moved the Supreme Court against interim orders passed by the Allahabad High Court directing multiple Central agencies to conduct a “fishing inquiry” into allegations about his “disproportionate assets”.
What is driving the story
Mr. Gandhi, represented by advocate Prasanna S., termed the series of directions passed by the Lucknow Bench of the High Court in May and July directing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) to probe the allegations against him as one of the rarest instances of a Constitutional court acting contrary to several first principles or basic, fundamental legal rules all at once. Mr. Vighnesh Shishir, was a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh who had instituted multiple complaints and public interest litigation petitions against him in the past, including his alleged foreign citizenship to, now, allegations of holding disproportionate assets.
The Opposition leader said terming these orders outside the settled rules of law or erroneous would be a gross understatement. Gandhi said the High Court did not consider the fact that the writ petitioner before it, S. The Congress leader said repeated filing of proceedings against him by the same “motivated individual” based on “unsubstantiated allegations” constituted a background demonstrating a pattern of persistent and vexatious litigation.
What It Means
The High Court orders have the effect of placing the complaints against him under continuing judicial supervision. He noted how the High Court had ordered an investigation by ED under the money laundering charges even without a predicate offence being registered.
He said the High Court had repeatedly required the probe agencies to disclose progress made on the complaints about him. The Leader of Opposition said the High court orders had directly affected his civil rights and political reputation.
