SC refuses to quash PIL against Mayawati in Taj corridor scam

The Supreme Court today rejected Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati's plea for quashing a PIL filed against her in the Taj corridor scandal which had involved construction of a massive shopping mall and recreational centres near the world famous monument.

She had sought quashing of the PIL in the Allahabad High Court claiming that opposition parties could try to destabilise her government on the issue.

A bench of Justices B S Sirpurkar and B Sudershan Reddy asked the Uttar Pradesh government to approach the High Court on the issue of maintainability of the PIL.

"What the opposition is going to demand to destabilise the government, we are not bothered," the court said.

The observation of the judges came when senior counsel K K Venugopal submitted that the PIL had the propensity to destabilise the government.

He pleaded that if the PIL was allowed to be heard, it would only give the opposition an excuse to demand her government's resignation.

"Destabilisation, why should we go into all those things?" the bench asked.

The court was also not impressed with the UP government's argument that the case was politically motivated as it claimed that four other similar petitions on the same issue were earlier dismissed by the apex court.

The judges while saying that they found no reason to interfere in the matter, granted liberty to the UP government to raise its arguments before the High Court.

The Mayawati government had filed the appeal challenging the Allahabad HC decision to admit a PIL filed by Kamlesh Verma and two others challenging the refusal of the then state Governor T V Rajeswar to grant sanction to the CBI to prosecute Mayawati in the alleged scandal.

The Taj Corridor scandal relates to certain sanctions for grant to construct a massive shopping mall and other recreation centres in the Taj corridor at a huge public cost by bending several rules and regulations.