Chiding the UPA government for elevating Union Cabinet Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh from the Heavy Industries portfolio to Rural Development in last months reshuffle,Supreme Court Justice A K Ganguly said Saturday that a politician who had been rapped by the apex court continued to be in his full glory,and this was shameless. Ganguly was referring to the Supreme Court judgment passed by him and Justice G S Singhvi in December,which pulled up Deshmukh for using his influence to prevent Maharashtra Police from registering a criminal case against a Congress legislators moneylender father when Deshmukh was chief minister. The court had rebuked Deshmukh saying,The chief minister should not have interfered with the criminal justice system, and slapped a Rs 10-lakh fine on the state government. Addressing lawyers and activists at a two-day conference on Gender Concern in Conflict Zones in Mumbai today,Justice Ganguly said,It is sad and shocking to see how the government allows and appreciates such ministers. Not only that,and also gives them a Cabinet post. It is not a dignified act,I would call it a shameless act. On December 14,the apex court had dismissed Maharashtras appeal against the Rs-25,000 penalty imposed on it as costs by the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court. The HC had imposed the fine on March 5,2009 on a petition by Buldhana district farmers Sarnagdharsingh Chavan and Vijaysingh Chavan alleging that the police had refused to register a criminal case against Congress legislator Dilipkumar Sanandas father Gokulchand Sananda,a private moneylender. The HC had found gross interference from the executive in shielding a private financier belonging to the ruling party. The farmers have no remedy against moneylenders who charge exorbitant interest, Justice Ganguly said today. The chief minister (Deshmukh) had intervened and had stopped the police from filing an FIR until the committee cleared the complaint. I say this is wholly unconstitutional, Ganguly said,referring to the district-level committee appointed by Deshmukh to scrutinise complaints against moneylenders. Maharashtra is yet to pay the Rs 10 lakh fine,and is likely to appeal the order.
