New Delhi, Oct 1 (IANS) The Supreme Court Monday reserved its order on a plea challenging an Allahabad High Court order imposing a cost of Rs.50 lakh and ordering a CBI probe against a former Samajwadi Party legislator who made an allegation of abduction and rape of a woman by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
The high court imposed the cost on Kishore Samrite while absolving Gandhi and his six friends of the allegation of illegal detention and rape of an Uttar Pradesh girl in Amethi in 2006.
While ordering a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the whole affair leading to the allegation against Gandhi, a division bench of the high court, in an interim order, summoned the records of the case that was being heard by the single judge and passed the order.
Samrite challenged the division bench’s decision of passing the order on his habeas corpus petition after calling all the records from the single judge’s court.
The apex court bench of Justice B.S. Chauhan and Justice Swatanter Kumar reserved the order upon the conclusion of arguments by Kamini Jaiswal, who had appeared for Samrite.
Samrite contended that the division bench of the high court, on a petition by another Amethi resident Gajinder Pal Singh, called for records from the single judge’s court.
Jaiswal told the court that Gajinder Pal Singh could not have moved the habeas corpus petition as he had not alleged any “illegal confinement”.
She said that second habeas corpus petition by Gajinder Pal Singh, hailing from Amethi, was aimed to “save the reputation of some leader”.
The apex court had stayed the operation of the high court order in April.
