The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed as without substance a petition against Rahul Gandhi, which had alleged that he had confined a girl in Uttar Pradesh, and slapped costs of Rs10 lakh, including Rs5 lakh on an ex-SP MLA, who had filed it.
The court also directed that CBI shall continue the investigation against the petitioner — ex-Samajwadi Party MLA Kishore Samrite and other persons — who are involved in filing of the frivolous petitions and asked it to submit a report within six months.
"The allegation is without substance and without an iota of evidence," a bench of justices BS Chauhan and Swatanter Kumar said on the allegation levelled against Gandhi of rape of a girl in Uttar Pradesh and illegally detaining her along with her parents.
"The reputation of respondent no 6 (Rahul Gandhi) has been damaged by the undesirable act of the petitioner (Samrite)," the bench said.
The apex court further said the petition was "misconceived" and that Samrite abused the process of law on the basis of incorrect statement.
The bench passed the order on an appeal filed by Samrite challenging an order of the Allahabad High Court which had dismissed his plea against Gandhi and imposed costs of Rs50 lakh on him for filing a frivolous petition.
The high court had also directed a CBI probe against the former MLA from Madhya Pradesh. Samrite had then approached the apex court against the high court's order.
The Supreme Court said the petition filed by Samrite in Allahabad High Court was based upon falsehood, was abuse of the process of court and was driven by malice and political vendetta.
"Thus, while dismissing this petition, we impose exemplary costs of Rs5 lakhs," being payable to Gandhi, the bench said.
The court also dismissed the petition filed by one Gajender Pal Singh, who had also approached the Allahabad High Court for saving the reputation of Gandhi and the family of alleged detenees.
It said Singh had approached the court with unclean hands, without disclosing complete facts and misusing the judicial process.
"In fact, he filed the petition without any proper authority, in fact and in law. Thus the petition is also dismissed with exemplary cost of Rs5 lakh for abuse of the process of the court and/or for such other offences that they are found to have committed," the bench said adding that this amount will be given to the girl's family.
