Attorney General GE Vahanvati has landed in an embarrassing spot with the Kerala Government junking his advice to close a case against Reliance Communication over irregularities in award of contract for a data centre project.
Appearing for the State in Supreme Court last week, Vahanvati dropped a surprise by informing the court that he would advice the Kerala Government not to proceed with the case. It was assumed that the AG spoke on instruction. But with a latest affidavit filed by the State Chief Secretary in the apex court, it became clear that the statement by the AG was an empty promise and no consultation in this regard was held with the Chief Minister.
The affidavit said, “The advice of the AG has been considered by the Government in the Cabinet held on October 1, 2013. On the basis of a serious consideration of the entire facts, the Government has decided that considering the seriousness of the case, it is not in the interest of the State to revoke the decision taken to hand over the case to CBI.” The matter will be heard on Monday.
The case related to award of contract for IT Services Management, a State project consisting of operations, maintenance, upgrade, security audit and certification of existing State Data Centre and three network operating centres under the State Information Infrastructure. The previous Government awarded the contract to Reliance Communication. But soon after the Congress Government took charge, it took an in principle decision in February 2012 to order CBI probe after a Vigilance probe detected irregularities.
Attorney General was roped in to defend the State’s Advocate General who pre-empted the State’s move and even before the State Cabinet agreed to a CBI probe on March 6, 2012, had informed the Kerala HC of the decision. The HC closed further hearing in a PIl based on this statement. The PIl petitioner approached SC questioning the conduct of the AG, who was pulled up even by the SC.