AMITABH THAKUR Vs. STATE OF U P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner to the first writ petition is a member of the Indian Police Service, IPS presently under suspension. Together with his spouse, who is a social activist, he is a petitioner in the second writ petition, Writ Petition No. 9042 of 2015 (M/B). In the first writ petition, Writ Petition No. 9020 of 2015 (M/B) a disclosure has been sought of the "exact allegations" against the petitioner in a First Information Report, FIR No. 746 of 2015 lodged against the petitioner under Section 13(1)(e) read with Section 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, Act at Gomti Nagar Police Station, Lucknow. The petitioner seeks a disclosure of (i) the secret and/or open enquiry report conducted by the State Vigilance Establishment on the basis of which the FIR was registered; (ii) a copy of the report of the Lokayukta which has been mentioned in the FIR and of a letter of the District Magistrate; and (iii) investigation of the FIR in a transparent and unbiased manner so as to enable the petitioner to satisfactorily account for his assets.

(2.) Broadly speaking, the writ petitions advert to four sets of facts. For ease of exposition during the course of the hearing, the learned senior counsel appearing on behalf of the State has tendered a status summary of the proceedings. Since the status of those proceedings is not in dispute, we are briefly adverting to them hereinbelow:

(3.) There are two broad aspects of the matter. The first aspect relates to the non-disclosure of information and particulars to the petitioner in regard to the allegation of disproportionate assets. Shri Thakur has submitted that the least that the principles of fairness would require is that he should be apprised of the nature of the allegations against him and more particularly of the assets which are alleged to be disproportionate to his known sources of income.