HC rejects petition against Gujarat minister

The Gujarat High Court has dismissed as "politically motivated" a plea for a direction to the police to register an FIR against state minister Shankar Chaudhary for allegedly furnishing a fake MBA degree to election authorities ahead of the 2012 Assembly polls.
The petition, filed by social activist Farsu Goklani, was rejected on the ground of it being "politically motivated" by Justice J B Pardiwala yesterday.
"I have no doubt in my mind that this writ application is nothing but an outcome of the personal vendetta and actuated by political considerations," observed Pardiwala in his order.
"It is so obvious that the person against whom the allegations have been levelled being an arch political rival of the writ applicant, all attempts are sought to be made to malign him. In view of the above, this writ application fails and is hereby rejected," the judge observed.

As an alternative remedy, the high court suggested the petitioner to approach a magistrate's court.
"It shall be open for the writ applicant to avail of the legal remedy under section 200 of the CrPC. The magistrate concerned shall apply his own mind and look into the averments made in the complaint as well as the material on record and take an appropriate decision in that regard," it said.

Earlier, in March last year, a division bench of Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice A S Dave had disposed of a PIL on the same issue filed by Goklani.

Later in January this year, Goklani again approached the high court with a petition seeking a direction against the Minister of State for Health, Chaudhary, who is an MLA from Vav Assembly seat in Banaskantha district.
Goklani contended that Chaudhary passed his Higher Secondary Examination in 2011 and a year after, he got his MBA degree from a Vadodara-based National Institute of Management.
Goklani alleged that no institute can offer an MBA degree in just a year after class 12, and that Chaudhary be prosecuted for submitting false details regarding his degree in the poll affidavit.