A division bench comprising Chief Justice S N Variava and Justice S K Mahajan said the petitioner, the All India Young Lawyers Association (AIYLA), which challenged the CBI's closure report in the case, was at liberty to appear before the city Chief Metropolitan Magistrate to contest whether it should be accepted or not.

"The report is before the CMM and it is in his jurisdictionto take further action on it," the bench observed.

Challenging the report, AIYLA counsel Kamini Jaiswal alleged the report was an "eyewash" as the CBI "failed" to do justice with the investigation into the murder.

She said the agency did not question the former Internal Security minister Rajesh Pilot, who on December26, 1997 had written to the then Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda requesting a CBI probe into the case. "The least the CBI should have done was confront (sic) the letter to Pilot," she said.