Don't try to run politics through court, says SC; rejects plea against HC order

Do not try to run your politics through court, the Supreme Court said on Wednesday while dismissing a plea challenging the Bombay High Court order in a matter related to no confidence motion against a Sarpanch. A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde was hearing the plea challenging the high court's March order which had rejected the petition filed by a man, who was then a Sarpanch.

The plea was against an order by which no a confidence motion passed against him -- by a vote count of six in favour and one against -- was sustained. "Why do you want to be part of a body that does not want you?," the bench, also comprising Justices A S Bopanna and Hrishikesh Roy, told the counsel appearing for the petitioner. "Do not try to run your politics through court," observed the bench, which heard the matter through video-conferencing. "Heard. We see no reason to entertain this petition. Accordingly, the special leave petition is dismissed," the bench said in its order. During the arguments before the high court, the petitioner's counsel had claimed that charges levelled against his client were "vague and ambiguous" and merely because the majority members were not pleased with the functioning of Sarpanch, it cannot be a ground for passing the no confidence motion.

A single judge bench of the high court, while dismissing the plea, had referred to a verdict delivered earlier in a separate case by its division bench which had said that if the no confidence motion was validly passed by the requisite majority, no interference has to be caused unless there is a flagrant violation of any mandatory procedure laid down by law..