Former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh today told the Supreme Court that BJP MP Anurag Thakur's writ plea against the charge sheet in the HPCA case is not maintainable and has become infructuous.
A bench of justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan was told by the former chief minister Singh that Thakur has not even challenged the cognisance order of the trial court in the case, till now.
Senior advocate Anoop George Chaudhary, appearing for the Congress leader said that law cannot be allowed to be sabotaged by petitioners before the apex court as they have not challenged the cognisance order of trial court.
"His (Thakur) writ plea in the Supreme Court has become infructuous as challan has already been filed in the case and cognisance has been taken by the trial court, the order which has not been challenged till now," Chaudhary said.
Senior advocate P S Patwalia said that there is nothing remaining in the case and the respondent (Virbhadra Singh) arguing in the matter is gross abuse of the process of law.
The bench, however, said that the respondent can make submissions in the case.
The top court posted the matter for further hearing on May 9 due to paucity of time and said that there were several part heard matters in the cause list.
The apex court had on April 17, warned warring factions in the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA), involving top politicians from the BJP and the Congress, from making the top court an arena for their political duel.
The apex court had made it clear to veteran the Congress leader Singh that it may remove him as a party to the case, in which his arch rival and also an ex-chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and his son BJP MP Thakur are accused of alleged corruption in the state cricket body.
Singh had opposed the BJP government's plea for quashing of prosecution against Dhumal, Thakur and others, saying the due procedure in law has to be followed.
The apex court's remark had come after Advocate General Ashok Sharma said the state cabinet had taken a decision that all politically motivated case including the HPCA case shall be withdrawn.
Singh had opposed the state government's decision and said legal procedure needed to be followed for withdrawal of cases.
The court had said it was aware of the procedure laid down under the law and asked why can't the apex court quash the proceedings when the state government itself wants to withdraw the case.
Dhumal, Thakur and HPCA had challenged the Himachal Pradesh High Court order of April 25, 2014, by which it had refused to quash the FIR and stay the criminal trial pending before special judge, Dharamshala, in a case registered under the provisions of cheating, criminal conspiracy and Prevention of Corruption Act.
Thakur, who is a BJP MP from Hamirpur and was then the HPCA president, had contended in apex court that the case was actually a civil dispute but then Virbhadra Singh-led Congress government had made it a criminal case for political reasons.
The FIR in the case was registered by the Dharamsala office of the Vigilance Bureau on August 1, 2013, months after the Congress government assumed power in December 2012.
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