HP law officer defends Anurag Thakur in SC against State govt.

The BJP government in Himachal Pradesh today fielded its law officer in the Supreme Court against the state's Advocate General to defend party MP Anurag Thakur and the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association as a "special case".

The state government told the top court that it wanted to withdraw Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) cases in the wake of a cabinet decision of January 17 deciding "to withdraw all politically motivated cases" instituted by the previous government "in the larger interest of governance".

A bench of Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan, however, put a spoke in the state government's attempt to withdraw the HPCA cases, asking whether the cabinet decision applied to these cases.

"We don't care what your policy is. You have to tell us specifically whether the cabinet decision applies to these cases," the bench told Advocate General Ashok Sharma, who was appearing for the state government.

Sharma said he would take specific instruction on the issue and sought some time from the apex court.

Senior advocate P S Patwalia, along with Additional Advocate General Abhinav Mukherjee appearing for Thakur, HPCA and others, said he too needed some time to go through the documents.

He said once the lease amount of Rs 1.26 crore was accepted by the state government, there is no criminality left in the case.

To this, the bench said, these sort of arguments can only be considered at the stage of final arguments when it will have to pass an order on merit.

The Advocate General then intervened and said the cabinet decision will not cover these cases and due procedure under section 321 of CrPC (withdrawal from prosecution) will have to be followed.

"Then you will have to move the application before the magistrate for withdrawal of the cases as per law," the bench observed and directed the Advocate General to take specific instruction and clarify whether the HPCA cases before it were covered by the cabinet decision.

The bench then posted the matter for further hearing on April 17.

Advocate Abhinav Mukherjee was last month appointed by the state government to represent it in the Supreme Court as Additional Advocate General. He had, however, written to the state government seeking permission to continue appearing in certain cases, which included the HPCA matters against the state government.

The state home secretary in a letter earlier this month had informed the Advocate General Ashok Sharma about the permission granted by the government.

"The matter was examined at the government level in consultation with the law department and it has been decided that as a special case, Abhinav Mukherjee is allowed to defend the referred cases in the Supreme Court, since (he) is retaining these cases," the letter of Principal secretary (home) to Advocate General said.

It said that Mukherjee was handling the cases in the Supreme Court prior to his appointment as Additional Advocate General.

The apex court had on January 19 asked the state government whether it would withdraw the criminal cases lodged against BJP MP Anurag Thakur and HPCA for alleged irregularities in the cricket stadium in Dharamshala.

The top court had then asked since the HPCA, Thakur and others had earlier claimed that the cases were politically motivated, will now the new BJP government withdraw the cases lodged against them.

Advocate General Ashok Sharma had then said that he had no instruction with regard to withdrawal of these cases.

In the recent assembly elections in the state, BJP's chief ministerial candidate Prem Kumar Dhumal had lost, prompting the party to appoint Jai Ram Thakur as Chief Minister.

Dhumal, Thakur and HPCA had challenged the Himachal Pradesh High Court order of April 25, 2014, by which it had refused to quash the FIR and stay the criminal trial pending before special judge, Dharamshala, in a case registered under the provisions of cheating, criminal conspiracy and Prevention of Corruption Act.

The high court had rejected their plea saying no case for interference is made out at that stage. The apex court had on January 5, 2015, stayed trial in the case and summoned the case records from the trial court.

Thakur, who is party MP from Hamirpur and then president of HPCA, had contended in apex court that the case was actually a civil dispute but then Virbhadra Singh-led Congress government had made it a criminal case for political reasons.

The FIR in the case was registered by the Dharamsala office of the Vigilance Bureau on August 1, 2013, after Virbhadra Singh led Congress government had come to power in December 2012.