Thaindian News

New Delhi, Feb 8 (IANS) Courts are being used as “playgrounds” by political parties and their opponents to settle scores, the Supreme Court was told Tuesday.”The courts are increasingly becoming the playgrounds of parties and their political opponents to settle scores,” senior counsel Rajiv Dhawan told an apex court bench of Justice Altamas Kabir and Justice H.L. Dattu.

Appearing for the daughter-in-law of Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, Dhawan said she was dragged into a disproportionate assets case simply because she belonged to the politician’s family.

He said there was no basis or evidence for the apex court to order the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to hold a preliminary inquiry against the members of the Yadav family.

The court was hearing a petition by the Yadavs, including Mulayam Singh, his son Akhilesh and his daughter-in-law Dimple, seeking a review of the court’s direction to the CBI to investigate allegations of disproportionate assets against them.

Petitioner Vishwanath Chaturvedi alleged that the Samajwadi Party leader and his family members possessed assets that were disproportionate to their known sources of income.

Attorney General G. Vahanvati, who is assisting the court, said that the CBI probe could only be ordered if there was a violation of the fundamental rights of the people and the local police were unable to protect them.

However, the court should refrain from ordering a CBI probe if the conflict was between political opponents and the petition was politically motivated, Vahanvati told the court.

Appearing for Chaturvedi, senior counsel K.T.S. Tulsi said that all the allegations of the disproportionate assets were backed by documents.

The court asked Tulsi to address the question whether it was right in ordering a CBI probe.

The hearing was adjourned till Feb 17.