Sharma had accused the Finance Minister of plundering the capital reserve of the RBI. (Express photo by Amit Mehra) Sharma had accused the Finance Minister of plundering the capital reserve of the RBI. (Express photo by Amit Mehra)

The Supreme Court Friday dismissed a PIL raising allegations against Finance Minister Arun Jaitley of plundering the capital reserve of the Reserve Bank of India. The apex court also imposed a penalty of Rs 50,000 on advocate M L Sharma, who had filed the public interest litigation.

The apex court slammed lawyer M L Sharma for naming Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the PIL. “You file PIL naming the Fin Min and saying he was likely to plunder RBI resources…?”, the court asked. Supreme Court expressed displeasure that the advocate made the finance minister as the main party in the PIL.

The bench further said, “What is this PIL? You cannot go on with such misadventure. What exactly is this? You are saying the finance minister is plundering the capital reserve of the RBI. You are not bringing honour to this institution. Why do we permit you to go ahead with this PIL.”

The bench, comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice S K Kaul, also directed the apex court registry not to allow Sharma to file any PIL till he deposits Rs 50,000. “We find no reason whatsoever to entertain this PIL,” the bench said. The top court imposed the cost as the advocate continued with the argument after dismissal of the PIL.

Sharma had accused the Finance Minister of plundering the capital reserve of the RBI.

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