Political Vendetta Argument Can't Be Used To Curb Legal Proceeding: Rajasthan HC Nixes Municipal Head's Plea Claiming To Be Target Of Political Rivals
Dismissing a plea by the Chairman of the Municipal Corporation, Nawalgarh alleging political vendetta behind show cause notices issued to him, the Jaipur bench of the Rajasthan High Court said that political vendetta cannot be used as a shield to curb the initiation of proceedings under the law.
The grievance raised by the petitioner was that he belongs to a particular political party and with the formation of Government by rival political party in Legislative Assembly, he has been targeted. The court however said that if show cause notices are quashed based on "bald statement" of a political vendetta that even in lawful cases the proceedings will be curbed at the threshold.
Justice Avneesh Jhingan in his order thereafter observed:
"The democracy and rule of law are interdependent. In a country governed by rule of law the statutory provisions provide safeguard for the rights of the citizens. The key requirements of rule of law are access to the Court, free and fair trial and a fair notice of exercise of powers by the Authorities. Each political party whether ruling or in opposition has an important role in democracy. The political vendetta cannot be permitted to be used as a shield to curb initiation of proceedings under the statute. In case, initiation of proceedings at stage of issuance of SCN (show cause notice) are quashed on a bald statement of a political vendetta, the result would be that even in cases where as per law the proceedings can be initiated, the initiation would be nipped at threshold. The occasion to proceed in accordance with law for scrutinizing the act done shall not arise as the political party to which the petitioner belongs would be no longer in power either in Municipal Council or at the State level. The derivative being that while in power the act would not be checked and successor will not be able to do it being from an opposite party, the conduct and the act done during tenure would never be scrutinized".
The high court further noted that the allegation contained in the notices "involve factual aspects and are based upon the record", and that the petitioner without filing a response to the notices had filed the writ petition before the high court.
It then said, “It cannot be lost sight that to rule out arbitrariness after holding preliminary enquiry SCN were issued.The contention that the petitioner has been singled out for issuance of SCN is pre-mature.The matter is being scrutinized and as things unfold, scope of proceedings can be enlarged".
It further said that the petitioner's contention that documents or the enquiry reports have not been supplied to him need not be addressed at this stage. It noted that till date the petitioner had not made a request for supply of material relied upon.
"At this stage the details as to what was the role of the petitioner in issuing permissions and getting a bigger plot allotted for himself by surrendering an earlier plot should not be gone into as it would influence proceedings. It would not be appropriate at this stage in the writ petition to pre-judge the issue," the court undercored.
The petitioner was elected as the Chairperson of the Municipal Board, Nawalgarh. After a preliminary enquiry, two show cause notices were issued to him indicating many allegations including granting construction permissions in violation of law, surrendering of land allotted to him and getting bigger plot allocated to himself, etc.
It was the case of the petitioner that the decisions on the instances mentioned in the notices were taken by the empowered committee, however, only the petitioner was singled out and was being targeted. It was submitted by the petitioner that since he belonged to a different political party than the one in power, he was being targeted.
"Before concluding it would be appropriate to note that in the writ petition it is pleaded that the petitioner apprehends being targeted as the Chairman of the Municipal Council Jhunjhunu and Pradhan of Chirawa have been suspended. Suffice to say that the writ petition cannot be entertained only on apprehension, in absence of any prima facie basis," the court said while dismissing the plea.
Title: Mohd. Soyab Khatri v State of Rajasthan & Ors.
Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Raj) 409