In a week of oscillating fortunes for politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen in corruption cases, the Bombay high court’s order granting relief to former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan comes as huge relief to him and the Congress Party. The court set aside the sanction for his prosecution given by current governor last February as opposed to an earlier governor having declined the same in 2013. It is difficult not to draw the conclusion that some political motive was involved in declining the sanction as well as in granting it. Judicial orders, based on facts and law, have to be taken at the face value, and they obviously have to be decided on a case-to-case basis.
Even so, a sweeping conclusion that no collusion of politicians was involved in such cases is best discouraged. In any case, such closures are projected by political forces and are generally disbelieved. There was undeniable evidence that Chavan’s kin — his sister-in-law Seema Sharma, mother-in-law Bhagwati Sharma and father-in-law’s brother Madanlal Sharma — were members of the society and benefitted from the allotment of flats in the Adarsh Society, originally meant for people who had served in the defence forces. The arguments were over whether Chavan, as revenue minister, had benefitted from a quid pro quo in the society being given land and in return civilian membership being opened up by the society’s promoters.
Chavan has been absolved in this case although he may be open to prosecution under the stringent prevention of corruption act. However, Chavan had paid a big price in having to step down as chief minister. Politicians have been known to skate on thin ice in several such decisions of the government playing the role of the benefactor in blatantly discriminatory manner. Even then, there can be no better arbiter than the highest courts of the land to nail them or let them go on technicalities.
