Mumbai: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday opposed the public interest litigation (PIL) filed in the Bombay high court against the discharge of BJP president Amit Shah in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh fake encounter case. The CBI argued that the PIL filed by the Bombay Lawyers Association was “devoid of any merit” and urged HC to dismiss it.
In the PIL filed in January, the petitioner claimed that the CBI’s decision to challenge the discharge of some police officers, and not the discharge granted to Mr Shah was discriminatory.
However, Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, who appeared for the CBI, said that the PIL was merely a publicity stunt. Mr Singh argued that since Mr Shah had been granted a discharge by a special CBI court in the city in December 2014, several pleas challenging it were filed in the high court and subsequently withdrawn or dismissed. The Supreme Court, too, had upheld the dismissal of several such pleas challenging the discharge granted to Mr Shah and therefore, there was no need for the Bombay high court to entertain the new PIL.
“This is the fourth round of litigation challenging Mr Shah’s discharge. The present case is not a PIL, but a publicity interest litigation and should be dismissed,” advocate Singh said.
HC has now directed the CBI to file a compilation of all the previous judgments in the petitions challenging Mr Shah’s discharge before October 3. At the end of the day’s hearing in the case, the bench was also informed that a new PIL has been filed by a local journalist in the case and that it has the same prayers as that in Abdi’s plea. The high court has tagged the two matters and will hear them together on October 3, the next date of hearing.
