Final touches to petition to be filed in SC

JAIPUR: The legal cell of the state government has worked out the modalities of the special leave petition, which it is planning to file in the Supreme Court, against the Rajasthan High Court order quashing the Mathur Commission.
The high court in its order on January 4 had termed the constitution of Mathur Commission as illegal and suggested that the allegations of corruption against the Vasundhara Raje government be handed over to the state Lokayukta.
According to sources, the department of personnel has requested solicitor general Gopal Subramaniam to argue the special leave petition to be filed by the state government. The appeal has been drafted on three major grounds which include the contention that Lokayukta does not have the authority to inquire into charges of corruption.
The government counsels are preparing to argue that the Lokayukta has no authority and jurisdiction to inquire into the illegalities committed by a chief minister and MLA — both present and former — and as such, the transfer of investigation to Lokayukta will yield no results. Another contention is that by ordering the investigations to be transferred to Lokayukta, the high court has deliberately interfered in the functioning of the government and the court cannot be permitted to ask the government to choose among the options available to conduct an inquiry.
The government also plans to apprise the Supreme Court that in order to run a clean administration, it has the authority to constitute a fact-finding committee which is within the jurisdiction of the government. Hence the order constituting the Justice N N Mathur commission was right though the same was not a full-fledged commission under the Commission of Inquiries Act, 1952.
It is noteworthy that the Congress had made a huge hue and cry at the last assembly elections in 2008, stating that the BJP government under Vasundhara Raje was involved in all sorts of corrupt dealings of which land allotments were the most serious ones. Congress had promised during the elections that if voted to power, it will make a thorough inquiry into the alleged Rs 22,000 crore corruption charges against Raje and others.
Meanwhile, counsel for the petitioners in the high court, Abhinav Sharma said: “I have already filed a caveat in the Supreme Court on behalf of the petitioners and the Supreme Court will have to hear us as and when the matter is taken up. We are ready to give the government a strong contest as all the grounds for appeal are flimsical. Further, all the three grounds are juxtaposed to their pleadings in the high court.” Kashi Purohit and KML Asthana were the petitioners who had questioned the functioning of the Mathur Commission against which the Rajasthan High Court had passed the order.