A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw also discharged the NGO, Common Cause, which had filed a PIL seeking direction to CBI and Directorate General of Income Tax to initiate an investigation under the court's supervision into the allegations of money laundering and corruption against Singh.
The court's order came after senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Singh, objected to the maintainability of the PIL, saying the Chief Minister has imputed "motive" on lawyer Prashant Bhushan, who represents petitioner 'Common Cause'.
"Another element to be considered in this particular case is the fact that the real petitioner is Prashant Bhushan and not 'Common Cause' ... Prashant Bhushan himself is a member of Aam Aadmi Party which has a particular ideology and agenda which is in opposition to other major political parties in the country," Sibal had then contended.
The court observed in its order, "Though senior counsel for the petitioner (NGO) has refuted that the present petition is a result of the animosity between it's member and Virbhadra Singh and has sought to highlight the distinction between the member and the petitioner, but senior counsel for Singh has drawn attention to the initial complaint and argued that the same was not by the petitioner but by the said member and has contended that only the name of the petitioner is used to settle personal score of the said member of the petitioner."
"Accordingly, the petitioner is discharged from present petition. Senior advocate N Hariharan, Senior and advocate Siddharth Aggarwal, who have graciously agreed, are appointed as the amicus curiae, to assist us in the matter. They are requested to go through the materials/records to be supplied to them by the court master,uninfluenced by the contentions of petitioner and to assist us on the aspect of maintainability/ entertainability of this petition," the court said.