The Gujarat High Court dismissed a PIl seeking CBI probe on alleged irregularities in the land allotted to Gujarat International Finance Tech (GIFT) City project. The GIFT project is a brainchild of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to make the State capital a financial hub of the country.
The PIl was filed by an individual was dismissed by the division bench of Chief Justice Bhasker Bhattacharya and Justice JB Pardiwala on the ground that the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India cannot be sole basis of a PIl.
“A CAG report is always subject to scrutiny by the public accounts committee of the State Assembly after Government gives its view on the observations made in the report. It is a constitutional body and a key figure in the parliamentary system. However, CAG is not empowered to question the merits of Government policies,” the court observed.
It was further observed by the court that Government had not sacrificed larger public interest nor its intentions seemed mala fide in developing the project on public private partnership model. It was of the opinion that the State Government acted in a transparent manner with regard to the GIFT city project.