Samajwadi Party chief MulayamSingh Yadav and his son and UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadavfailed to get any relief today from the Supreme Court whichdirected the CBI to go ahead with its inquiry "independently"in the disproportionate assets case against them.
The court, however, dropped the CBI probe against DimpleYadav, wife of Akhilesh Yadav, saying that she was notholding any public office and she was only a private personholding no position.
The apex court said "CBI is an independent body" and itis free to proceed with the probe against Mulayam and his twosons--Akhilesh and Prateek--in accordance with the law.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Altamas Kabir and H LDattu refused to alter the March 1, 2007 order for CBI inquiryagainst them saying that "the proceedings in the reviewpetition cannot be converted into the appeals".
The bench also accepted that its direction in the March1, 2007 order directing the CBI to place the report ofprogress into the investigation before the Union Governmentsuffered from "error" and required modification.
The court said it is "not contemplated in the DelhiPolice Establishment Act" under which CBI functions that theagency has to file its status report to the government andthere was a need for modifying its earlier order.
"We are modifying our order of March 1, 2007 to removethe error in it directing CBI to place the report before thegovernment," the bench said.
The bench said, "Since CBI is an independent body, thereis no obligation for it to file the status report before thegovernment".
"CBI, which is probing the case, has to decide what stepsit has to take," it said.
While holding that the CBI probe against Mulayam and his sons cannot be dropped, the bench said CBI will takeindependent action in pursuance to the March 1, 2007 order inaccordance with the law.
The bench cleared the UP Chief Minister's wife Dimplefrom the DA case, saying the "probe against her is liable tobe dropped and the review petition filed by her is allowed."
The apex court passed the order almost two years after ithad reserved order on February 17 last year on the reviewpetition filed by Mulayam, his sons Akhilesh and Prateek andDimple.
The court had ordered a CBI inquiry on March 1, 2007 intothe alleged accumulation of disproportionate assets by theYadav family on a public interest litigation (PIL) by anadvocate, Vishwanath Chaturvedi, reportedly a Congress leader.
Deviating from the precedent of hearing review petitionsin the judges' chambers, the bench had heard the petition inan open court at Yadavs' request.
Seeking a review of the apex court order, Mulayam and hisfamily members had submitted that there was no evidenceagainst them and that they were being harassed by politicaladversaries.
They had assailed the apex court's earlier order claimingit would "set a dangerous precedent" of allowing politicalopponents to file "false and frivolous" petitions againsttheir detractors.
Earlier, during the arguments, the Centre, whilerefraining from going into the merits of the allegationsagainst the Yadavs, had cited a number of judicialpronouncements to drive home the point that the apex court haspowers to order a CBI inquiry in "exceptional cases."