(FE)
The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to pass any order on a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking an investigation into the role of the Punjab National Bank (PNB) top brass and deportation of billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi in the Rs 11,400-crore fraud case. This came after attorney general KK Venugopal opposed the plea from being taken up at this point of time on the grounds that a first information report had already been filed in the case and a probe was on.
As soon as the AG got up to oppose the PIL, petitioner lawyer Vineet Dhanda urged a bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud to issue notice to the Centre and others as the “kingpin of the scam Nirav Modi” had run away with the “common man’s savings”. After some heated exchanges, the CJI observed that “we are here to address only legal issues. Big emotional speeches will have no impact.” He also added that it amounted to misuse of the legal provision of filing a PIL for publicity.
