NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday forced senior Gujarat IAS officer Pradeep Sharma to delete wild personal allegations against chief minister Narendra Modi but decided to issue notice on his petition alleging that he and his IPS brother were victimised by the state government.

A bench comprising Justices Aftab Alam and R M Lodha came down hard on Sharma and ordered removal of the offensive portions from his petition, in which the state government, Modi, the Centre and the CBI are respondents.

Sharma alleged that he and his brother Kuldip Sharma, the senior-most police officer in the state, earned the ire of the BJP government, in particular of Modi and former home minister Amit Shah, because Kuldip refused to oblige the establishment in the probe into sensitive cases relating to the Sohrabuddin fake encounter, fake human trafficking case against Mallika Sarabhai and several extortion cases.

Sharma, facing four criminal cases relating to administrative decisions taken by him while officiating as the district collector of Bhuj, claimed that the state government was venting the ire directed against his brother on him. He claimed to have knowledge of Modi's personal life.

When the bench of Justices Alam and Lodha expressed displeasure over the wild allegations, Sharma's counsel senior advocate Colin Gonsalves said the petitioner did not intend to press them. But, the bench said, "You cannot raise averments in your petition like this and later say the pleadings are not being pressed. Either you stand by it or strike it off. We will not permit such character assassination."

Modi's counsel and senior advocate M N Krishnamani told the court that the objectionable portions must be deleted since they are unsubstantiated and made with an oblique motive to malign his client.

The court ordered deletion of the allegations, issued notice on the petition and posted it for further hearing in July.