New Delhi, May 2 (IANS) The Delhi High Court Monday dismissed a petition against social activist Anna Hazare that accused him of corruption and demanded his removal from the joint drafting committee of the Lokpal Bill.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Sanjiv Khanna said: ‘We do not perceive any public interest involved in this writ petition, and accordingly there is no need to call for any kind of counter-affidavit from the respondent.’
‘The writ petition does not deserve to be entertained for the purpose of adjudication and accordingly the same stands dismissed… It is a resolution passed by the ministry of law and justice for drafting of a bill. It can be treated as an internal matter of the executive and exclusively in the domain of the executive,’ the court added while pronouncing its judgment.
Terming it a matter ‘not for judicial review’, the court further said: ‘The suitability of the persons, we are disposed to think, cannot be a matter of judicial review, more so in a matter of the present nature… The matter is a prerogative of the government of India and is not in judicial preview.’
The bench was hearing a petition filed by a Pune-based NGO, National Anti-corruption Public Power.
The NGO president, Heman Baburao Patil, alleged that Hazare’s NGO Hind Swaraj Trust was found guilty of corrupt practices in an inquiry by retired Supreme Court judge P.B. Sawant.
‘One of the trusts run by Hazare is still unregistered and has been receiving money illegally in violation and contravention of laws,’ Patil alleged in his petition.
Patil further said in his complaint that several other criminal complaints were also pending against the 73-year-old activist.
He demanded that Hazare should be removed from the committee constituted for drafting the Lokpal Bill.
Hazare went on a 97-hour fast earlier this month following which the government set up a joint panel of cabinet ministers and members of civil society to draft a stringent Lokpal Bill.
