ASHOK CHAUDHARY Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS Public Interest Litigation has been pending at the motion stage since 2003. The prayer of the petitioner is that equipment worth Rs. 2.77 crores had been purchased by the Computer and Wireless Wing of the Punjab Police in the years 2000-2001 and 2001-2002 from M/s. Surya Telecom by respondent Nos. 6 to 8 ignoring all norms and procedures causing a huge loss to the Government, a matter which needed to be investigated. It has been alleged that M/s. Surya Telecom was a company which was being controlled by a person with a dubious background and he had connived with some of the respondents to engineer the supply of substandard equipment to the police.

(2.) WHILE the matter had been pending in this Court, notice had also been issued to Mr. Rajan Gupta, the learned counsel for the Central Bureau of Investigation and he too has been appearing in these proceedings. A committee of experts was also set up by the Court, which has submitted a report of a very highly technical nature. An in-house enquiry was also conducted by Shri R.K. Gupta, A.D.G.P. and it is the case of the petitioners that this enquiry had been rushed through with the intention of stalling the present proceedings and as such no sanctity could be attached to its findings, which were even otherwise vague and intended to bail out those who were involved in the purchases. On 19.9.2003 this Court had recorded the following order :-

(3.) MR . Sarin, the learned Senior Counsel appearing for respondent No. 6 has pointed out that from the documents on record including the letter dated 17.9.2002 and the pleadings inter se the respondents themselves wherein allegations/counter-allegations had been levelled, it was clear that the entire matter had been initiated on account of service rivalry and as such this litigation was not maintainable. In support of this submission, he has placed reliance on State of Karnataka v. Arun Kumar Agarwal and others, 2000(1) SCC 210; Dr. B. Singh v. Union of India and others, JT 2004(3) SC 127; N.K. Prasada v. Government of India and others, 2004(6) Supreme Court Cases 299 and Dattaraj Nathuji Thaware v. State of Maharashtra and others, 2005(1) RCR(Civil) 231 : JT 2004(10) SC 561.