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TMI Blog2007 (3) TMI 818X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t a preliminary enquiry into the assets of all the respondents and after scrutinizing if a case is made out then to take further action in the matter. The ultimate test, in our view, therefore, is whether the allegations have any substance. An enquiry should not be shut out at the threshold because a political opponent of a person with political difference raises an allegation of commission of offence. Therefore, we mould the prayer in the writ petition and direct the CBI to enquire into alleged acquisition of wealth by respondent Nos. 2-5 and find out as to whether the allegations made by the petitioner in regard to disproportionate assets to the known source of income of respondent Nos. 2-5 is correct or not and submit a report to the Union of India and on receipt of such report, the Union of India may take further steps depending upon the outcome of the preliminary enquiry into the assets of respondent Nos. 2. In the instant case, it needs to be noted that we are concerned in this case not with the merits of the allegations. The present petition is filed on acquisition of alleged wealth. The test which one has to apply to decide the maintainability of the PIL concerns suff ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... .H. Parekh Co. JUDGMENT A.R. Lakshmanan, J. 1. The above writ petition under Article 32 of the Constitution of India styled as Public Interest Litigation has been preferred for seeking enforcement of fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India. According to the petitioner, he is an advocate by profession and not connected or related to any political party or parties. According to him, he has filed this petition with an intention to highlight the root of corruption in U.P. Administration. According to him, he has no relation or connection with Congress Party as on date and that the documents which have been enclosed along with the additional affidavit filed by respondent No. 3 would go to prove that respondent No. 3 is having more access in the office of Congress party, more than even the members of AICC/UPCC and that respondent No. 3 with the help of some employees of AICC/UPCC succeeded in forging documents to project the petitioner as a sponsored person of Congress. It is also further stated that he is not connected with any alleged PIL Cell of concerned party. The name of the petitioner does not appear in the list w ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... iving all the details and requested the Home Minister to take appropriate action against the respondents. It is alleged that the Home Minister has failed to take action against the aforesaid respondents under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. 4. The petitioner also made a representation dated 02.07.2005 to the Hon'ble Governor of the State of U.P. requesting the Governor to take immediate action against the 2nd respondent, his sons and one daughter-in-law under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. However, the Governor has failed to take any action on the representation made by the petitioner. The petitioner in the representation has given the details in regard to the properties owned by all the contesting respondents. The petitioner has also filed all the sale deeds and other documents. According to the petitioner, though some of the properties mentioned by Shri Akhilesh Yadav and Shri Mulayam Singh Yadav, in the affidavits submitted by them before the Election Commissioner, however, source of acquiring such properties have not been mentioned in the said affidavits. From the year 1977, both Shri Mulayam Singh Yadav and Shri Akh ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... informations in terms of Section 133(6) of the Income-Tax Act, 1961 (in short the Act ). The proceedings pursuant to those notices may continue untrammeled by the fact that the present writ petition is pending and we have asked for certain details to be filed. Call this matter on 17th July, 2006. 6. Pursuant to the said direction, respondent Nos. 2,3,4 5 have submitted their Income-tax Return and Income Tax Assessment Order, Wealth Tax Return and Wealth Tax Assessment Orders for the assessment years 2001-2002, 2002-2003, 2003-2004, 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 in sealed covers. Respondent Nos. 2-5 also filed separate affidavits along with income-tax returns etc. The second respondent has also explained in his affidavit dated 7.7.2006 that all the returns of the deponent/respondent No. 2 and the return of Samajwadi Party for the assessment year 2005-2006 as well- as the assessment orders passed with respect to the deponent/respondent No. 2, are being submitted in a sealed cover for the perusal of this? Court and that it also includes material submitted along with the returns. It is also mentioned in the affidavit that the reason for submitting the material in sealed cover is ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t of ₹ 100 crores. Photos of said institute are enclosed herewith as Annexure K-9 to this affidavit. (c) Respondent No. 2 to 5 are also having a very big house at village Saifai near Etawah. The said house is hundred times better than 5 Star Hotel in Delhi. In order to develop said house about ₹ 2 crores have been spent from contingency fund of Government of U.P. Photo of said house is enclosed herewith as Annexure K-10 to this affidavit. (d) Respondents jointly have also constructed several huge buildings at Vikramaditya Marg, Lucknow near Raj Bhawan and Vidhan Sabha. Photos of said buildings are enclosed herewith as Annexure K-11 to this affidavit. (e) Respondents have recently given one of the buildings situated at 31/93 Mahatma Gandhi Marg, Lucknow to ABN Amro Bank. Petitioner has reasons to believe that said building has been given on a monthly rent of ₹ 20 lacs. A photo of said building given on rent to ABN Amro Bank is enclosed herewith as Annexure K-12 to this affidavit. (f) Respondents were having a very big farm house near Gomti Nagar, Lucknow measuring about 5 acres, which was sold recently for a sum of ₹ 5 crores by respondent ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... No. 2, at the time of hearing, has placed four documents collectively marked as 'B'. These are as follows: (1) Xerox Copy of the letter dated 5.5.2006 from the Government of India, Office of the Assistant Director of Income-Tax, Ashok Marg, Lucknow addressed to Shri Mulayam Singh Yadav, respondent No. 2 requesting him to furnish such an information to the sender. (2) Xerox copy of the letter dated 5.5.2006 from the Government of India, Office of the Assistant Director of Income-Tax, Ashok Marg, Lucknow addressed to Shri Mulayam Singh Yadav, respondent No. 2 to personally attend his office on 26.5.2006 to give evidence and to produce through an authorized representative the books of account and or other documents specified in the notice etc. (3) xerox copy of the letter dated 24.5.2006 from Shri Mulayam Singh Yadav, respondent No. 2 to The Additional Director of Income Tax, Lucknow informing about furnishing of the documents, as required, through an authorized representative and Counsel. (4) Xerox copy of the letter dated 15.6.2006 from the Authorised representative and counsel to the Additional Director of Income-Tax, Lucknow furnishing certain informati ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Mr. P. Vishwanatha Shetty, learned senior counsel for the Union of India, Mr. Harish Salve, learned senior counsel, for respondent No. 2, Mr. Ashok H. Desai, learned senior counsel, for respondent No. 3, Mr. Rakesh Dwivedi, learned senior counsel, for respondent No. 4 and Mr. R.F. Nariman, learned senior counsel, for respondent No 5. 14. According to Mr. K.T.S. Tulsi and as already stated above, the net assets of the family are of ₹ 9,22,72,000/- as per the calculation made by the official valuer end the present value of the net assets comes to ₹ 24 crores. He invited our attention to the pleadings and the charts filed by the petitioner before-this Court. In support of his submissions, he relied on the judgment of this Court in K.L. Dorji v. C.B.I. (1992) ILLJ 922 SC and in Prakash Singh Badal v. State of Punjab : AIR 2007 SC 1274. 15. He also relied on a. judgment of this Court in Vineet Narain and Ors. v. Union of India and Anr. 1998 CriLJ 1208. In paragraphs 55 and 56 this Court observed as under: 55. These principles of public life are of general application in every democracy and one is expected to bear them in mind while scrutinising the conduct of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Samajwadi Party directly and an amount of ₹ 1,10,00,000/- and stamp duty of ₹ 11,10,000/- was paid on 8.6.2005 for the said property and upon conversion into free-hold property on 26.2.2005, an amount of ₹ 40,41,621/-along with stamp duty and miscellaneous expenses of ₹ 4.15,000/- have been paid by the Samajwadi Party and that respondent No. 2 had executed the deed in his capacity as the President of the Samajwadi Party. He invited our attention to the Deed of Freehold Leasehold Nazool Land and the schedule at page 380 of the writ petition paper book. He also invited our attention to the paragraphs (b), (f) and (g) of the common counter affidavit of reply in regard to respondent No. 2 and submitted that the information already furnished are available with the Income-tax Department and are not public records. Mr. Harish Salve further invited our attention to the prayer made in the writ petition, additional affidavit filed by the petitioner (page 276 of the paper book) and the reply filed thereon. According to him, the facts mentioned and details furnished in the writ petition are highly disputed facts and Income-tax authorities are already working on it and t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ce of income. 19. Mr. Rakesh Dwivedi, learned senior counsel, appearing for respondent No. 4 who is the wife of respondent No. 3 reiterated the same arguments advanced by other learned senior counsel appearing for the respondents. He also submitted that separate Income-tax Returns were filed on behalf of respondent No. 4 and that respondent Nos. 2-5 have their own agricultural income from trading in agricultural produce and the same can be verified from the Income-tax Returns. He also denied that respondent No. 3 has no source of income and that he had returned to India in 1997 and not in the year 2002 as alleged and that he has a substantial income from wholesale trading in agricultural produce. 20. Mr. R.F. Nariman, learned senior counsel appearing for respondent No. 5 who is a student and son of respondent No. 2. He simply submitted that the mother of respondent No. 5 purchased a plot in his name. He further submitted that the writ petition should be dismissed at the threshold as it is politically motivated. He invited our attention to pages 388 and 431 of the writ petition and submitted that the property was purchased on 24.12.1999 by Smt. Sadhana, the mother of respo ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e out for initiating enquiry and there is every minute ground to suspect and, therefore, the prayer asked for should be granted. 23. As already noticed, voluminous documents by way of several sale deeds, Income-tax Returns, Income-tax Assessment Order, Wealth Tax Returns and several photographs have been filed. This apart, several charts in regard to the properties purchased by various respondents have also been filed. The contesting respondents have also filed a separate chart and all these documents have been marked as 'A' to 'H'. 24. In our opinion, the minuteness of the details furnished by all the parties and the Income-tax Returns and Assessment Orders, Sale deeds etc. have to be carefully looked into and analysed only by an independent agency with the assistance of the Chartered Accountant and other accredited Engineers and valuers of the property. As stated by the petitioner, very valuable properties in the heart of the City have been purchased for lower sale consideration and lesser than the market value on the date of purchase and, therefore, it requires a detailed enquiry which is time consuming. This Court will not be in a position to verify ea ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ade by the petitioner against him have cast a cloud on his integrity. Therefore, in his own interest, it is of utmost importance that the truth of these allegations is determined by a competent forum. Such a course would subserve public interest and public morality because the Chief Minister of a State should not function under a cloud and that it would also be in the interest of respondent No. 2 and the members of his family to have their honour vindicated by establishing that the allegations are not true. In our view, these directions would subserve public interest. 28. The ultimate test, in our view, therefore, is whether the allegations have any substance. An enquiry should not be shut out at the threshold because a political opponent of a person with political difference raises an allegation of commission of offence. Therefore, we mould the prayer in the writ petition and direct the CBI to enquire into alleged acquisition of wealth by respondent Nos. 2-5 and find out as to whether the allegations made by the petitioner in regard to disproportionate assets to the known source of income of respondent Nos. 2-5 is correct or not and submit a report to the Union of India and o ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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