The judgement that was dictated on March 6, 1999 also puts the onus on the state government to investigate the role of Joshi and his Minister of State for urban development, Ravindra Mane in the case, since specific directions towards this have been passed in the judgement. ``As far as prayer for directing prosecution against the CM, and the Minister of State is concerned, we are not inclined to grant this relief. Nonetheless, we direct the state to make appropriate investigations through an impartial agency,'' the order reads.

The court however left it to thestate government to take actions according to law, ``if satisfied that any criminal offences have been committed by the respondents.''.

The `Girish Vyas case' that rocked the Shiv Sena-BJP government and eventually led to the removal of Joshi as chief minister, was the result of two PILs filed by a journalist, Vijay Kumar Kumbhar of Pune, and Nitin Jagtap, a Congress corporator of the Pune Municipal Corporation. They had challenged the construction of Sun Dew apartments, a residential complex at final plot no 110, Prabhat Road, Erandwane, Pune since it had been reserved for a primary school and no process of law had been followed in its dereservation. They had alleged that the dereservation of the plot had been undertaken by the PMC at the behest of the office of Joshi, who was also the cabinet minister for urban development, to benefit his son-in-law, Girish Vyas' construction company, Vyas Constructions.

Not only had there been no public notice as required under Section 37 of the Maharashtra RegionalTown Planning Act, 1966 but the issue of the dereservation was never placed before the PMC for the approval of the city fathers. The bench of Justices Srikrishna and Parkar had declared that the dereservation thus done, was illegal and had held Joshi guilty of misusing office not only as CM, but also as cabinet minister for urban development. The bench held that Joshi had ``misused executive powers'' in ``pressurising officials'' to approve the dereservation.

The bench had also observed that there was a ``carefully orchestrated action of the state government in directing the commissioner of Pune, that it was not necessary to take the approval of the PMC in this matter''. The bench had also found the then Pune Municipal Commissioner, Ramanath Jha guilty of omissions in his call of duty and had directed that the ``impartial agency'' would investigate his role as well.

The hard hitting order had directed that the commencement certificates of November 28, 1996, May 3, 1997 and July 3, 1998 and the OccupationCertificate of December 20, 1997 given to the residential complex, be cancelled. It also directed demolition of the 10 storeyed structure, and the PMC was directed to call upon Vyas Constructions to restore the final plot no 110 to status quo ante. Vijay Kumbhar was also awarded Rs 10,000 each from the state, the PMC, Joshi, Mane and Vyas as costs towards the petition.

No move was made on any of these orders since the copy was not made available. In fact, the bench granted three extensions to the stay ordered on the demolition.