Supreme Court Asks CAG To Examine Corruption Allegations Against Arunachal Pradesh Govt During 2007-11 Term

In a public interest litigation raising allegations of corruption in relation to certain tenders floated by Arunachal Pradesh government a decade ago, the Supreme Court on March 20 directed that the complaints be examined by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).

The Bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi passed the order in a Special Leave Petition where the petitioners alleged that contracts were given by the state government of Arunachal Pradesh without floating any tender.

The petitioner-NGO had filed the petition in 2010 challenging a decision of the Gauhati High Court. Pertinently, Dorjee Khandu, the Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh during the 2007-2011 term and present Chief Minister Pema Khandu (son of Dorjee Khandu) are respondents in the matter in their personal capacity.

One of the issues that had concerned the Bench initially was the time gap between the date of alleged occurrence and the date of hearing. In this regard, Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioner(Voluntary Arunachal Senaa), had tried to impress upon the Court that there was ex facie corruption, as contracts were awarded without tenders being floated, that too to the CM's own relatives.

On the other hand, the State of Arunachal Pradesh argued that the beneficiary of the contracts, as well as the former Chief Minister (Dorjee Khandu) had passed away. Therefore, the SLP had abated against him.

In October, 2023, the Court sought a response from the CAG on two aspects: (i) Whether very close relative(s) to the Executive Head of the State can be awarded Government contracts and (ii) In answer is in the affirmative, what would be the norms for awarding contract to such persons. Now, the CAG has been directed to examine and investigate the allegations.

For a detailed background, click here.

Counsels for petitioner: Advocates Prashant Bhushan and Neha Rathi

Case Title: Voluntary Arunachal Sena v. State of Arunachal Pradesh, SLP(C) No. 34696/2010

Citation : 2024 LiveLaw (SC) 283

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