The Supreme Court today slapped a Rs 5 lakh fine on an ex-SP MLA Kishore Samrite while dismissing as without substance his petition against Rahul Gandhi in which he had alleged that the Congress leader had confined a girl in Uttar Pradesh - rape allegations had flown thick and fast during the lead-up to the UP elections, infuriating the Congress party scion.

"The allegation is without substance and without an iota of evidence," a bench of justices B S Chauhan and Swatanter Kumar said.

"The reputation of respondent no 6 (Rahul Gandhi) has been damaged by the undesirable act of the petitioner (ex-Samajwadi Party MLA Kishore Samrite)," the bench said.

The apex court further said the petition filed against Gandhi was "misconceived" and that Samrite abused the process of law on the basis of incorrect statement.

The bench passed the order on an appeal filed by Samrite challenging an order of the Allahabad High Court which had dismissed his plea against Gandhi and imposed a cost of Rs 50 lakh on him for filing a frivolous petition.

The high court had also directed a CBI probe against the ex-SP MLA from Madhya Pradesh. Samrite had then approached the apex court against the high court's order.

Rejecting his plea, the Supreme Court said, "the petition filed by him was not bonafide and there was no case of illegal confinement as the girl, who was allegedly kidnapped, had made no complaint.”

The bench, however, said that the cost imposed by the high court was exorbitant and reduced it.

It said that the CBI will continue with its probe against Samrite and other persons who are involved in filing of the frivolous petition and asked it to submit a report within six months.

The apex court on October 1 had reserved its order on the plea challenging the March 7, 2011 order of the Allahabad High Court.

Samrite, who is facing a CBI probe for dragging Gandhi's name in the case, had submitted in his plea that the High Court had wrongly dismissed his petition by imposing exemplary costs of Rs 50 lakh.

He had insisted that his petition was maintainable and that the Division Bench of the High Court exceeded its jurisdiction by transferring the matter from a single bench to itself.

He had submitted before the apex court that the High Court had erroneously tagged his petition with another and had deprived him of his right to be heard.

He had said the two petitions were different in nature and the names of persons in illegal confinement mentioned in them were different.

He had said the three persons, i.e, the girl and her parents produced before the High Court, were different from those mentioned in his petition.

The CBI had told the apex court that its probe has found that the case against Gandhi was based on "non-existent" claims.

Gandhi's counsel had argued that Samrite's petition was politically motivated to tarnish the image of the young politician.

He had also raised objections to the averments made by Samrite in his affidavit, saying nobody can accuse the judges of being biased.

Samrite had said that the CBI did not follow the proper procedure in probing the case and had registered the regular case without making a preliminary inquiry.

HIGHLIGHTS

* SC dismisses case filed against Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi by former SP MLA Kishore Samrite

* Petition filed against Rahul was without substance which damaged his and his family's reputation: SC

* Not an iota of evidence against Rahul, says SC which directs Samrite to pay Rs 5 lakh to the Congress leader for filing baseless petition

UP CM Akhilesh Yadav made me do it, says former SP MLA

The case of alleged illegal confinement and alleged rape of a girl in which Rahul Gandhi's name was dragged took a new turn today with a former Samajwadi Party MLA claiming he filed the petition linking Gandhi at the behest of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.

"It is the present Chief Minister," advocate Kamini Jaiswal, appearing for the former MLA from Madhya Pradesh Kishore Samrite told a Supreme Court bench comprising justices B S Chauhan and Swatanter Kumar.

She gave this reply when the bench referred to specific averments made by Samrite in the affidavit in which he stated that he had filed the petition at the behest of the Samajwadi Party leaders.

"What do you mean and who are they," the bench asked while referring to Samrite's affidavit

Jaiswal said the case is being investigated by the CBI and Samrite has recorded his statement giving the names of the person at whose behest he filed the petition.

After that the bench wanted to know the stand of the senior advocate Ratnakar Dash, counsel for Uttar Pradesh Government.

He said the state government has not filed any affidavit in the matter as there was no specific allegation and since it has come for the first time that the Chief Minister has been named he would prefer to file an affidavit. The bench posted the matter for further hearing on September 17.

The apex court has commenced the final hearing a petition filed by a former MLA challenging Rs 50 lakh fine imposed on him by the Allahabad High Court for approaching it with these allegations.

Rahul Gandhi had pleaded that a case of perjury and contempt should be initiated against Samtrite.

The bench, however, had said that for levelling these allegation a proper application has to be filed as the court was only hearing a limited aspect relating to the case.

In an earlier counter-affidavit filed, Rahul Gandhi had submitted that the allegations made against him were "totally false, frivolous, vexatious and are calculated to harm my standing an image."

Rahul Gandhi had responded to the notice issued by the apex court on April 6 last year on a petition filed by a former MLA challenging Rs 50 lakh fine imposed on him by the Allahabad High Court in an alleged sexual exploitation case against him.

The apex court had also stayed the high court order which had directed a CBI probe against the former legislator.

Later Samrite had reportedly filed an affidavit claiming that he had filed the petition in the High Court at the behest of Samajwadi Party.