HC dismisses Swati Maliwal’s plea seeking quashing of charges in corruption case

In its order, the city court had ordered framing of charges against Maliwal and three former DCW members under Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC)

The Delhi high court on Friday dismissed Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal’s petition challenging the city court’s order framing of corruption charges against her in a criminal case for alleged illegal appointments in Delhi Commission of Women (DCW) between 2015-16.

Justice Amit Mahajan refused to quash the order framing charges against Swati Maliwal. (ANI photo)

A bench of justice Amit Mahajan also dismissed another plea filed by two former DCW members including Sarika Chaudhary also seeking to set aside the city court’s December 8, 2022.

In its order, the city court had ordered framing of charges against Maliwal and three former DCW members under Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), read with Section 13(1)(d) (criminal misconduct by a public servant) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The city court had opined that the perusal of minutes of the meetings held on various dates by the DCW, to which all four accused were signatories, were “enough to prima facie point to a strong suspicion that the appointments in question were made by the accused persons in agreement with each other”.

In the petition before the high court seeking to set aside the order, Maliwal had asserted that there was no allegation of any pecuniary gain in the matter, all the appointments to DCW, which is an autonomous body, were contractual in nature and duly approved the government’s finance department.

The appointments, the petition had stated, were made on an emergent basis to make DCW a robust organisation. It went on to add that the criminal case against her was malafide and the DCW is entitled inter-alia to make appointments for achieving the purposes of the DCW Act, which necessitates appointing lawyers and other persons engaged and experienced in matters relating to women’s affairs.

In March 2023, the high court had stayed trial court proceedings.

The case was lodged by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on a complaint by former DCW chairperson and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Barkha Shukla Singh on September 20, 2016.