Fourteen opposition parties moved to the Supreme Court on Friday, March 24th, alleging the misuse of federal agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED), etc, by India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), as per a report by Bar and Bench.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, on behalf of the opposition parties, submitted a petition regarding this alleged misuse of the federal agencies in the Supreme Court.
Opposition parties have been long alleging that the BJP misuses federal agencies to frame baseless cases against the opposition leaders to stifle them.
The Opposition also alleges that the cases against the opposition leaders, framed by these agencies, are often withdrawn once they join the BJP under duress.
The petition submitted on behalf of the opposition parties also contained a plea to mention the pre-arrest and post-arrest guidelines by the federal agencies.
Significantly, the move by opposition parties on Friday came after a Surat court sentenced Indian National Congress’s (INC) member of the Parliament (MP) Rahul Gandhi to two-year imprisonment on Thursday, March 23rd, in a defamation case.
Gandhi reportedly cited back in 2019 that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shares the same surname as that of fugitives who have fled India after committing frauds like Nirav and Lalit Modi.
Opposition leaders such as Arvind Kejriwal, Hemant Soren and others opposed the sentencing of Gandhi, irrespective of their differences with the INC.
Gandhi was later disqualified as an MP. He needs to await the quashing of the conviction by a higher court to be able to return to Parliament again.
The contingent of the opposition parties, which moved to the Supreme Court on Friday against the alleged misuse of federal agencies, comprised the INC, All India Trinamool Congress, Aam Aadmi Party, Janata Dal (United), Bharat Rashtra Samithi, Samajwadi Party, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray), Left parties, Dravida Munnetra Kazagham, Nationalist Congress Party and others.
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, DY Chandrachud, said that the hearing of the case vis-a-vis the alleged misuse of the federal agencies would commence on April 5th.
