The Supreme Court has slammed political parties for using courts to settle their political scores.

An annoyed bench of the apex court, comprising Justices D K Jain and T S Thakur pulled up the political establishment for playing their ping-pong game in courts to promote their political interests.

The Supreme Court was hearing the bail application of Janata Dal (United) MLA from Bihar Ranvijay Singh, who was charge-sheeted in 2005 in a murder case when its rival Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) was in power. In 2009, the State police had filed a closure report in favour of the MLA when Nitish Kumar government came to power and also filed an application for prosecution of the political rival of the JD(U) MLA.

Disapproving the attitude of the political parties, the bench noted, ‘Now your party is in power. When other parties in power you are the accused and when your party is in power your rival becomes an accused.

‘So hypothetically, if a third party comes in there(read judicial process) becomes another accused. So charge-sheets become closure reports and closure reports change to charge-sheets. This is a very sorry state of affairs. That is why the court is not willing to accept the second report.’ In view of the conflicting stand of the State police, the apex court refused to give any importance to it and directed the trial court to decide the matter on merits.

Later on, the petitioner withdrew its petition with liberty to approach the High Court.

Earlier, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had faced the wrath of the apex court for its flip-flops in cases against leading politicians like Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati and ex-UP CM Mulayam Singh Yadav, against whom corruption cases are pending.

UNI