India News | SC Rejects Pleas Against Bombay HC Order Leading to FIR Against Persons Involved with Housing Project for Poor
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a batch of appeals filed by some people related to a 2009 housing project in Maharashtra's Osmanabad district against a Bombay High Court order which had led to filing of an FIR against them for alleged irregularities in the scheme.
New Delhi, Oct 5 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a batch of appeals filed by some people related to a 2009 housing project in Maharashtra's Osmanabad district against a Bombay High Court order which had led to filing of an FIR against them for alleged irregularities in the scheme.
A bench comprising justices L Nageswara Rao and S Ravindra Bhat took note of the judicial records and the fact that out of "over 1200 dwelling units for the poor, 302 housing units were constructed in different localities of Naldurg municipality and of which 202 could be used and 100 were in an unusable and dilapidated condition".
"In the present case, there were materials suggesting serious irregularities. The government allowed the divisional commissioner to affirm in the affidavit filed by him on June 12, 2019 that criminal proceedings would be initiated. In such circumstances, the observations of the High Court to take the matter to the logical end have to be, therefore, construed in that context," the apex court said in the judgement.
The top court rejected the submission that the PILs were "motivated" and the high court should not have entertained them.
"There is no doubt that public interest litigation is meant to be entertained, for bona fide causes, and not to aid either misguided individuals in their quest for publicity, or for wreaking vendetta on public officials or institutions... This court had (undoubtedly before the era of public interest litigation) emphasized the need to keep out 'busybodies' who 'have no interest in matters of public interest'...," it said.
However, the bench said in the present case, the "fact is insufficient to allow the appeals" and the cause espoused by the PIL petitioners was undoubtedly one of public interest, because it concerned housing for the economically disadvantaged sections of society, in such great numbers.
While dismissing the appeals against the verdict, Justice Bhat, writing the judgement for the bench, deprecated the delay of almost 16 months between the pronouncement of final directions and the detailed reasoned judgement by the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court.
"The first grievance of the appellants is that the reasoning for the impugned judgment was given and published long after its operative portion was pronounced. The operative portion of the judgment was pronounced on June 27, 2019. The reasons were published on October 05, 2020...
"In this case, the high court indisputably should have furnished the reasons for the operative portion of its order. To that extent, the appellants' grievance is justified... However, the high court's conduct in not furnishing reasons, either at the time of pronouncement of the operative part of the judgment, or before the commencement of the next working day (of the court) is strongly deprecated,” the bench said.
The judgement, however, refused to consider the delay as the ground for setting aside the high court verdict which had simply asked the authorities to take the matter of alleged irregularities to a logical end and ensure the completion of housing projects for the poor.
"It caused prejudice no doubt, to the extent that the appellants were unable to furnish grounds on which their special leave petitions were based. However, that prejudice stood off-set with the interim orders of this court, which recognized the piquancy of the situation, and directed a stay of further action against the appellants. In view of these special circumstances, the court is of the opinion that the impugned order should not be set aside," it said.
As far as the FIR was concerned, the police had no choice given the imperative nature of the law declared in the Lalita Kumari judgement where a preliminary enquiry ordinarily is to be eschewed whenever cognizable offences are reported, it said.
"In light of the ... findings, this court is of the opinion that the appeals have to fail. However, it is made clear that the observations made by the High Court or the observations of this court, in the course of this judgment shall not be construed as precluding any argument or defences, the merits of any argument or defence that may be taken by the appellants in the course of the criminal proceedings," it said.
Earlier, the PILs were filed in the high court seeking directions to the Centre, the Maharashtra government, its departments and officials to initiate criminal proceedings against the "responsible officers and office bearers of Municipal Council, Naldurg and concerned contractors for misappropriation of government funds in implementation of the housing scheme in the municipality".
The high court, which sought some responses from authorities, finally disposed of the two PILs after taking note of Divisional Commissioner's reply and directed the authorities to take steps in light of the reports indicating irregularities and take the case "to its logical end" as expeditiously as possible.
The inspection reports and affidavits of authorities had revealed that only 302 housing units were constructed in different localities in Naldurg, of which 202 could be used and 100 were in an unusable and dilapidated condition.
"The proceedings before the high court led to the inspection as well as the verification of accounts as a consequence of which the affidavits filed on behalf of the authorities revealed that excess payments of Rs 1.52 crore and Rs 90.97 lakh were made," the apex court noted in the judgement.
According to the project, 1206 houses for the poor were to be constructed and 737 beneficiaries from reserved category and 469 from general category were identified as beneficiaries of the project.
The cost of each house was fixed at around Rs 1 lakh each and the total cost of the project was fixed at Rs 20.69 crore.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)