All about Presedent election-2012

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a PIL against presidential candidate Pranab Mukherjee and termed as "utterly fantastic" the petitioner's allegation that by canvassing support of MPs and MLAs while being finance minister, he had committed an offence under Prevention of Corruption Act.

A bench of Justices Aftab Alam and H L Gokhale initially decided to impose a cost of Rs 50,000 on advocate petitioner M L Sharma but later accepted his request to spare him of the financial burden by issuing a warning to him not to indulge in such litigation in future.

The bench said, "This court is not a theatre for your farcical plays." Sharma argued that Mukherjee had committed an offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act for seeking "votes" as a favour from MPs and MLAs in exchange of aid and other benefits under various government schemes.

The bench told the counsel to refrain from such acts and observed, "You are trying to destroy the system. He is a candidate, he has to go to MLAs and MPs. On what basis do you say he is seeking favours." A similar petition by Sharma against Mukherjee was dismissed by the Delhi High Court on June 29.