Chennai: It is a well-settled principle of constitutional and criminal jurisprudence that CBI probe cannot be ordered as a matter of course, solely based on the subjective belief of a litigant, Madras high court asserted on Tuesday. The court made the observation while dismissing a plea seeking CBI probe into the alleged irregularities and corruption in resignation of four AIADMK MLAs and immediately joining the ruling TVK.“While a sudden realignment of political loyalty by the MLAs may cause financial strain due to the necessities of conducting a bye-election, such political choices do not ipso facto translate into criminal misconduct under the Prevention of Corruption Act, in the complete absence of proof of an unlawful quid pro quo,” the first bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan said.According to B Ramkumar Adityan, the MLAs having spent substantial sums of money up to the statutory ceiling limit of Rs 40 lakh for their election campaigns, could not have realistically treated their legislative positions as trivial and surrendered them within days of taking the oath unless induced by illicit gratification or promises of executive or remunerative political office.Refusing to concur, the court said: “Pleadings in a PIL targeting public dignitaries and elected representatives must possess a high degree of precision and should be backed by relevant material obtained upon research and not based on speculative hypothesis.”“When this court raised a specific query as to whether there are any documents in support of the asseverations made in the plea, the petitioner only sought to refer to certain decisions of the Supreme Court. In our considered opinion, judgments and legal precedents are authorities for the propositions of law they decide, and they do not serve as a substitute for the foundational facts that a petitioner is bound to establish within the four corners of his pleadings,” the judges said.
