Jaipur: Rajasthan High Court Saturday asked the trial court in the Ekal Patta case to decide on protest petitions against the ACB’s closure reports giving clean chit to former UDH minister Shanti Dhariwal in the matter. The court also held that the state retains the power to probe the case further if it wishes to. The court ruled that Dhariwal’s earlier plea before the high court to quash criminal proceedings in the case was premature, as pending petitions against Anti-Corruption Bureau’s (ACB) closure reports must first be decided by the trial court.A division bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma heard the case in compliance with the Supreme Court’s Nov 5, 2024, order, which remanded the matter to the High Court for fresh consideration on merits. The apex court had earlier set aside the High Court’s Nov 15, 2022, order that quashed proceedings against Dhariwal.The HC bench observed that Dhariwal was neither named as accused in the FIR nor charge-sheeted by the investigating agency, and therefore the earlier quashing of proceedings was not legally justified. “Since petitions challenging the ACB’s clean chit are pending, the trial court alone must decide them in accordance with the law,” the order stated.The court also clarified that the state govt retains the statutory power to conduct further investigation if necessary. Additional solicitor general SV Raju and AAG Shiv Mangal Sharma argued argued that Dhariwal’s petition was not maintainable while the protest petitions against the ACB’s June 12, 2019, closure report remain undecided. They contended that the trial court’s jurisdiction must be respected and that investigation is an essential part of the criminal process. Dhariwal’s counsel, senior advocate Sahajveer Bajwa, maintained that his client was an aggrieved party entitled to seek relief since the investigating officer already gave him a clean chit.
Ekal Patta case: HC asks trial court to decide on ACB clean chit to Dhariwal | Jaipur News
