The Supreme Court has directed the Comptroller and Auditor General of India to probe complaints against the state government of Arunachal Pradesh on charges that it granted contracts to close relatives of the Chief Minister without floating any tender. The allegations pertain to the 2007-2011 period when Dorjee Khandu, now deceased, was the Chief Minister.
The order was passed by a bench comprising Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi in a Special Leave Petition filed by the Voluntary Arunachal Senaa, an NGO, in 2010. The petition landed before the apex court after the petitioner-NGA challenged an order of the Gauhati High Court.
The court was initially in two minds on accepting the SLP in view of the time gap between the time of occurrence of the alleged offences and the date of hearing. Senior advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioner, had then argued that there was ex-facie corruption as contracts were awarded without floating any tender to the CM’s close relatives.
The Arunachal Pradesh government, on the other hand, argued that the SLP stood abated since the beneficiary of the said contracts under question as well as the former Chief Minister had passed away.
The Supreme Court had roped in the CAG in the matter in October 2023 and sought its response on two issues. The first was whether the close relatives of the executive head of the state can be awarded government contracts. If yes, what would be the norms for awarding a contract to such persons?
However, the top court, in its latest order (March 20), has expanded the ambit of the CAG’s examination and asked it to also examine and investigate the allegations against the Arunachal Pradesh government. Notably, late CM Dorjee Khandu and incumbent CM Pema Khandu have been made respondents in the matter in their personal capacity.
