The Supreme Court on Thursday gave a free hand to the CBI to probe alleged irregularities in the purchase of aircrafts by Air India, diversion of lucrative routes to private airlines, and other deals entered into by former Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel during the tenure of UPA-I Government.
A PIl by Centre for Public Interest litigation (CPIl) had brought the issue to the Court suggesting that several other irregularities had been reported by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) concerning the manner in which the Ministry of Civil Aviation was run during the period of 2004-05 when Patel was at the helm. This period coincided with the purchase of 68 aircrafts by Air India at a cost of Rs50,000 crore, a matter which is presently being investigated by CBI.
Appearing for CPIl, advocate Prashant Bhushan told a bench headed by CJI JS Khehar that besides the scathing findings in the CAG report, a Canadian Superior Court’s judgment pointed out how a man bribed several officials in the Ministry of Civil Aviation in allotment of contract for installing biometric system worth Rs1000 crore, a proposal floated by Patel.
The bench, also comprising Justices NV Ramana and DY Chandrachud, disposed of the PIl by directing the CBI to look into all the allegations raised by Bhushan and fixed June 2017 as the deadline to complete the probe.
When Bhushan requested the Court to keep the matter pending for a Court-monitored probe, the bench said, “You cannot allege bias. Now parties have changed, Governments have changed. We must trust that our agencies will do a good job.”
Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, who appeared for the Centre, informed the Court that following the CAG report, the Public Accounts Committee of the Parliament examined each allegation and raised queries from time to time. The Ministry had satisfied each query and PAC is likely to shortly file its final report.