PIL seeks reopening of Taj corridor case against Mayawati

A public interest litigation was moved before the Lucknow bench of Allahabad high court on Monday seeking the re-opening of the Taj Corridor case against former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati in which the court had in November 2012 refused to intervene on the plea that the special CBI court had let her off on "technical grounds " in 2007.

The PIL would be taken up for hearing on Wednesday.

The court's verdict had come on the ground that the state governor's mandatory permission required for initiating prosecution proceedings against a chief minister had not been obtained.

Then Governor T V Rajeshwar had flatly denied the permission to prosecute Mayawati.

Moving the PIL now, petitioner lawyer C B Pandey challenged Rajeshwar's order, which, according to him, has several loopholes.

He has also made the former governor a party in the case.

According to Pandey, "The then Governor had violated all norms and practices in denying permission to prosecute Mayawati in a case that had exposed a Pandora's box of corruption charges against her. The permission was denied despite the fact that a formal approval of the then council of ministers as well as a nod of the advocate general was available on the file."

Alleging that the Governor had bypassed all norms by going out of his way to get a "favourable" opinion, Pandey has sought to point out in the PIL, "even though the then state advocate general as well as the state council of ministers of the day had given their formal nod for Mayawati's prosecution, the Governor chose to seek the opinion of the then additional solicitor general of the central government, who promptly gave a "tailor-made" report, advising against Mayawati's prosecution."

He went on to add, "What was even more  strange that the Governor not only praised the additional solicitor general for the opinion but the reasons that he gave out for refusing permission sounded more like a judicial review of the case -- which he was clearly not empowered to do."

It was on these grounds that Pandey had sought reopening of the case. "I am, therefore, appealing to the honourable court to reopen the case, which speaks volumes of the financial irregularities committed by the former chief minister."