Bombay HC quashes Governor’s sanction against Ashok Chavan in #AdarshScam

A Division Bench of the Bombay High Court today quashed a gubernatorial sanction permitting the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to prosecute former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan in relation to the Adarsh Scam..The Bench of Justices Ranjit More and Sadhana Jadhav held that the fresh material on the basis of which Maharashtra Governor C Vidyasagar Rao had granted sanction against Chavan was inadmissible, and could not be converted into evidence..The CBI had relied on a 2013 report by a Commission of Inquiry headed by former Bombay High Court judge Justice JA Patil, as well as the order of a single judge of the High Court in 2014, to persuade the Governor to grant sanction..However, the Bench held,.“Neither the extract of Justice J. A. Patil Commission Report nor the order dated 19th November 2014 passed by the learned Single Judge of this Court in Criminal Revision Application No. 136 of 2014 are admissible in evidence or capable of being converted into evidence and therefore the same cannot be considered.”.Former Governor of the state K Sankaranarayanan had refused the investigating agency sanction to prosecute Chavan in 2013. However, his successor, CV Rao, had reopened the issue after considering the JA Patil report. The Court agreed that review of a sanction order was permissible, stating,.“However, if the fresh material is collected by the investigating agency subsequent to the earlier order, then, the earlier sanction order can be reviewed or re-considered.”.The Bench, however, held that the material used by the CBI to secure the sanction was not permissible as evidence..Chavan was represented by Senior Advocate Amit Desai, while Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh appeared for the state government. Singh had also contested the validity of challenging a sanction pre-trial..In this regard, the Court said,.“the petition challenging the impugned order by the Governor can be entertained at pre-trial stage since the same is passed without there being fresh material.”.The judgment also includes a detailed timeline of the sequence of events leading to the grant of sanction, including the fact that a coalition government headed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) replaced the one headed by the Congress in 2014..DateEventApril 19, 2013JA Patil Commission report submitted to governmentAugust 19, 2013CBI forwards first application u/s 197 of CrPCDecember 17, 2013Governor K Sankaranarayanan refuses sanction to prosecute ChavanJanuary 15, 2014CBI makes application to trial court seeking to delete Chavan’s name from list of accusedJanuary 18, 2014Trial court rejects above applicationMarch 27, 2014CBI files supplementary chargesheet stating that Chavan was not part of Adarsh ScamMay 12, 2014BJP wins National ElectionMay 25, 2014CBI challenges trial court order before single bench of Bombay HCOctober 2014BJP and Shiv Sena form coalition government in Maharashtra November 19, 2014Single judge dismisses CBI’s revision application December 15, 2014Chavan files petition for recall of trial court order, dismissed by single benchApril 1, 2015Chavan files SLP in Supreme Court, which issues notice to stateOctober 8, 2015CBI sent fresh proposal seeking sanction against ChavanNovember 4, 2016New Governor CV Rao gives sanction to CBI to prosecute Chavan.The Court also cautioned against the independent sanctioning authority succumbing to the influence of “opinion”..“The sanctioning authority is an independent which cannot allow it to be influenced by any opinion.”.The CBI alleged that when he was Chief Minister, Chavan had illegally approved additional Floor Space Index (FSI) to the upmarket Adarsh Housing Society in South Mumbai, in exchange for two flats for his relatives. He had also allegedly approved the allotment of a percentage of the apartments to civilians, though they were meant solely for defence personnel..Read the judgment: