The Bombay High Court dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed seeking a direction to be issued by the High Court to appoint the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to investigate the alleged corruption said to have been committed by the respondents-officers.
The Division Bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Arif S Doctor noted that none of the officers have been impleaded as party-respondents in the PIL petition; instead it is the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, through its Commissioner, Assistant Commissioner, “A” Ward of the Corporation and the Commissioner of Police as also the Additional Commissioner of Police, Anti-Corruption Bureau have been impleaded as respondents.
The PIL petition, though runs into 12 paragraphs containing narration of facts and six grounds in support of the petition, however, from a perusal of the averments made in the PIL petition it is apparent that the petition is full of bald allegations without any supporting document or material to substantiate the allegations. The PIL petition, in fact, only speaks about lodging of several complaints by the petitioner on the letterhead of the Charitable Trust. In a series of such complaints it appears that certain allegations have been levelled against the officers of the MCGM, however, even the said complaints do not contain any material to substantiate the same, the Court further noted.
The counsel for the petitioner relies upon a First Information Report (FIR) , though it contains allegations against various officers, however, only one officer has been made an accused in the FIR. It is, thus, the submission of the counsel for the petitioner that the aforesaid FIR is not being investigated appropriately as a result of which the “corruption” amongst the officers of MCGM is unabated.
So far as FIR is concerned, the Court observed that it is for the complainant to pursue the said FIR and in case there is any lacuna in arraying accused persons in the FIR, it is for the complainant to raise the grievance. Even otherwise, the FIR is under investigation and hence any observation made in regard to the subject matter of said FIR by the Court at this juncture is completely unwarranted.
“It is settled law that ordinarily investigation of a reported crime is to be conducted by the local police. In very exceptional circumstances, the Court while exercising its jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, may transfer investigation of any offence to CBI, however, before passing such an order for transferring investigation to CBI, this Court needs to be satisfied that there are circumstances which exist warranting transfer of investigation to CBI. Such transfer of investigation of offences is ordinarily permissible in case the reported offence has any inter-State or all India repercussions. In the present PIL petition nothing has been brought to our notice so as to persuade us to transfer the investigation to CBI”, the order reads.