NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday sought responses from the Centre, the CBI and the Central Vigilance Commissionon a petition seeking probe by either the CBI or a special investigation team (SIT) into the functioning of the civil aviation ministry during 2004-2008.
The Delhi High Court had turned down the petition. Hearing an appeal by NGO 'Centre for Public Interest Litigation', which said the Delhi HC had erred in not ordering a probe even after finding that "all is not well" with Air India, a bench of Justices H L Dattu and C K Prasad sought the response of the concerned agencies.
The apex court's decision to entertain the petition on Air India scam, just a week after it agreed to take up a PIL on Coalgate, will add to the woes of a beleaguered UPA government reeling under political fire over corruption and price hike.
Seeking either a CBI probe or an SIT investigation into the Air India scam, the petitioner through advocate Prashant Bhushan listed out four charges against the ministry -- "purchase of 111 aircraft for Rs 70,000 crore to benefit foreign aircraft manufacturers; several aircraft taken on lease costing thousands of crores of rupees; bilateral rights given to foreign airlines without any reciprocal benefit to Air India; at the same time, Air India was asked to give up profitable routes and timings to benefit private airlines".
"After all this, the ministry merged Air India and Indian Airlines. Air India, which was showing a profit of about Rs 100 crore (it did not have the capacity to purchase even a few aircraft) immediately went into huge losses, which increased every year to reach tens of thousands of crores of rupees," the petitioner alleged.
"All of the above actions and decisions ruined our national carriers, cost the exchequer huge amount of money and the only beneficiaries of the above decisions were foreign aircraft manufacturers, private and foreign airlines," it said.
After being shown the reports of the parliamentary committee on transport, parliamentary committee on public undertakings and the Comptroller and Auditor General on June 1, the Delhi High Court was critical of several decisions of the ministry including aircraft acquisition but had refrained from issuing any direction to the government or Public Accounts Committee. However, the HC did outline several areas which needed special focus and fixing of accountability.
It had said, "The comments and critique by these expert bodies put a big question mark on the bona fides of the Aircraft Requisition Programme, the lease of aircraft, giving away profitable air routes to private airlines and retaining only loss making routes and even the unprofessional decision of merger of Indian Airlines and Air India. Prima facie it appears that 'all is not well'."
The Delhi High Court had turned down the petition. Hearing an appeal by NGO 'Centre for Public Interest Litigation', which said the Delhi HC had erred in not ordering a probe even after finding that "all is not well" with Air India, a bench of Justices H L Dattu and C K Prasad sought the response of the concerned agencies.
The apex court's decision to entertain the petition on Air India scam, just a week after it agreed to take up a PIL on Coalgate, will add to the woes of a beleaguered UPA government reeling under political fire over corruption and price hike.
Seeking either a CBI probe or an SIT investigation into the Air India scam, the petitioner through advocate Prashant Bhushan listed out four charges against the ministry -- "purchase of 111 aircraft for Rs 70,000 crore to benefit foreign aircraft manufacturers; several aircraft taken on lease costing thousands of crores of rupees; bilateral rights given to foreign airlines without any reciprocal benefit to Air India; at the same time, Air India was asked to give up profitable routes and timings to benefit private airlines".
"After all this, the ministry merged Air India and Indian Airlines. Air India, which was showing a profit of about Rs 100 crore (it did not have the capacity to purchase even a few aircraft) immediately went into huge losses, which increased every year to reach tens of thousands of crores of rupees," the petitioner alleged.
"All of the above actions and decisions ruined our national carriers, cost the exchequer huge amount of money and the only beneficiaries of the above decisions were foreign aircraft manufacturers, private and foreign airlines," it said.
After being shown the reports of the parliamentary committee on transport, parliamentary committee on public undertakings and the Comptroller and Auditor General on June 1, the Delhi High Court was critical of several decisions of the ministry including aircraft acquisition but had refrained from issuing any direction to the government or Public Accounts Committee. However, the HC did outline several areas which needed special focus and fixing of accountability.
It had said, "The comments and critique by these expert bodies put a big question mark on the bona fides of the Aircraft Requisition Programme, the lease of aircraft, giving away profitable air routes to private airlines and retaining only loss making routes and even the unprofessional decision of merger of Indian Airlines and Air India. Prima facie it appears that 'all is not well'."
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