The Supreme Court today refused to entertain a petition by fourteen political parties alleging that the Central government led by Bharatiya Janata Party was misusing central agencies like Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate against leaders of opposition parties.

The led by the Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud of which Justice JB Pardiwala is also member said that political leaders do not enjoy any immunity higher than common citizens.

While hearing the petition, the bench said that "So someone collects crores from common pensioners, no payment made and so multiple FIRs are filed...and the case comes here. Can we say that there can be no arrest here? Once we accept that political leaders are absolutely on same footing as common citizens with no higher immunity.. then how can we say there can be no arrests unless there is a three pronged test which is satisfied".

CJI further said "You are trying to extrapolate the statistics into solid legal guidelines. So now these statistics only relates to the politicians".

The bench also observed that anyone who is individually aggrieved can approach the Court by availing remedies under the law but there cannot be any general guidelines without accounting for the facts of individual cases.

The bench said "How can we start laying down guidelines in abstract context. Laying down general guidelines de hors the facts of the case cannot be done. If an individual comes to us, then the law can be laid down as highest court of the country.. it is in context facts of the case and also a general law. (But) we need to have facts in a case or group of cases".

The petition was filed collectively by Indian National Congress (INC), Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Bharat Rasthra Samithi (BRS), All Indian Trinamool Congress (TMC), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Shiv Sena (UBT), JMM, JD(U), Communist Party of India (Marxist), CPI, Samajwadi Party, J&K National Conference.

The petition was filed by Advocate-on-record SHADAN FARASAT.

Case details:-

W.P.(C) No. 419/2023

Indian National Congress vs Union of India