PIL for court-monitored probe not maintainable:Virbhadra to HC

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, accused of amassing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income, today told Delhi High Court that the plea seeking court-monitored probe into allegations against him was not maintainable.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the CM, told a bench of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva that an application has been filed challenging maintainability of the petition as well as the status reports filed today by CBI and Income Tax department.
Sibal said that the application has sought recall of the court's earlier order holding the plea to be maintainable.
Amicus curiae Hariharan, on the other hand, told the court that he needs time to see whether the CBI and IT department were investigating the allegations against the CM properly and whether court's intervention was required and also whether the plea was maintainable.

Thereafter, the bench directed the High Court's Deputy Registrar to keep the status reports in sealed covers and to place it before the court on the next date of hearing on November 4.
The bench also said that it has not examined the reports now and will examine them if necessary.

It said that if the amicus on the next date says there is no need for court to intervene in the matter and that the CBI and IT department are doing their job, then that would be the end of this petition.
On the last date of hearing, the court had directed CBI and the IT department to file status reports regarding the probe they have carried out so far.

The bench was hearing accusations against Singh of amassing assets beyond his known sources of income during his earlier tenure as the Chief Minister and a Union Minister in UPA II. He was accused of corruption, money laundering and forgery, a charge denied by him.