The Supreme Court says politicians don’t enjoy any special immunity and stand on the same footing as common citizens.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to entertain a petition filed by 14 political parties of India against the alleged misuse of the central investigations agencies the CBI and the ED against political rivals.
The SC bench headed by Chief Justice D. Y. Chandrachud and Justice J. B. Pardiwala said,
“Laying down general guidelines without having relation to facts of a case will be dangerous.”
After 30 minutes of arguing, senior advocate A. M. Singhvi appearing for the political parties chose to withdraw the petition and accordingly the petition was dismissed by a Bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud.
The bench said, “You please come back to us when you have an individual criminal case or group of cases”.
Congress along with DMK, RJD, BRS, Trinamool Congress, AAP, NCP, Shiv Sena (UBT), JMM, JD(U), CPI(M), CPI, Samajwadi Party and the J-K National Conference are the part of the joint move.
The plea alleged an alarming rise in the use of coercive criminal processes against opposition leaders and other citizens exercising their right to dissent.
The SC bench said guidelines cannot be sought only for politicians based on the statistics showing the maximum number of cases by the central probe agencies against opposition leaders as they do not enjoy any special immunity and stand on the same footing as common citizens.
