SC dismisses Maya's prosecution application

New Delhi, Oct 10: The Supreme Court today dismissed an application challenging the order of Uttar Pradesh Governor T V Rajeshwar refusing sanction for prosecutiion of state Chief Minister Mayawati in the Taj Corridor case.

A bench, comprising Justice S B Sinha, Justice S H Kapadia and Justice D K Jain, dismissed the application filed by amicus curiae Krishan Mahajan challenging the order of the Governor.

The amicus, in his application, had contended that the order of the Governor was violative of the orders of the Supreme Court which had orderd Ms Mayawati's prosecution in about Rs 175-crore scandal.

The trial judge had directed the CBI to obtain sanction from the Governor but when approached, he declined to allow the prosecution of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief. The bench, while dismissing the application today, noted, ''this court cannot hear this application as it is an environment bench ...

the application is dissmissed.'' Earlier, the same bench had directed the CBI to place the report of the Investigating Officer (IO) of the case before the trial court, which was posed to decide on merit whether a prima facie case was made out against Ms Mayawati.

The Centre had tried to close the case on the basis of the opinion of Attorney General Milon K Bannerjee, who had held that no case was made out for prosecution of the BSP supremo.

Today's order came as a boost for Ms Mayawati as the case virtually stands closed against her. The apex court had earlier directed the Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) to look into the matter whose report was also to the effect that a prima facie case was made out for her prosecution under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

UNI