Supreme Court Agrees To Hear Plea Alleging Allotment Of Contracts To Arunachal CM's Family

The Supreme Court today (January 29) agreed to issue notice in a PIL seeking directions for SIT probe into the alleged irregular allotment of public contracts to the companies owned by relatives of the incumbent chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh, Mr Pema Khandu.

The bench comprising CJI DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra was apprised of the previous pending SLP in relation to the alleged arbitrary allotments of public work contracts to the family of the Chief Minister in the state.

 Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioners mentioned that a similar SLP related to the father of the present Chief Minister, Mr Dorjee Khandu was pending before the bench of Justices Anirudha Bose and Bela Trivedi. Mr Dorjee Khandu was also accused of giving important public works contracts to his family companies.

Mr Bhushan explained, “ In that matter, there was an IA bringing out these contracts also before the court also which happened subsequent to the earlier proceeding, hundreds of contracts being given to the family members of the present Chief Minister. In October they had asked the CAG as to what are the rules regarding giving contracts to your family members etc. The CAG had given a note”

As per the petition, there was alleged partiality in giving away key tenders to the close associates of Mr Pema Khandu including the construction company 'M/s brand Eagles' belonging to Khandu's spouse. Additionally, Pema's nephew Mr. Tsering Tashi, an MLA from Tawang District owning M/s Alliance Trading Co. has been awarded work contracts without following due procedure.

The petition prays for an investigation into the matter either by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or a Special Investigation Team (SIT)

Taking note of the same the bench issued notice in the writ petition with liberty to serve the standing counsel of State of Arunachal Pradesh.

Background

A similar matter filed by an NGO named “Voluntary Arunachal Sena” and was represented by Advocate Prashant Bhushan, wherein it was alleged that contracts were given by the state government of Arunachal Pradesh without floating any tender.

The petitioner organisation filed the petition in the Supreme Court in 2010 challenging a decision of the Gauhati High Court to dismiss a PIL filed in 2007. Pertinently, Dorjee Khandu, the Chief Minister during 2007-2011 term is a respondent in the petition in personal capacity. The petitioner had also added the incumbent Chief Minister Pema Khandu (son of Dorjee Khandu) as an additional respondent in his personal capacity later.

The Court, expressing its intention to seek assistance from the Comptroller Auditor General (CAG) in the matter without impleading him as a party, had directed to submit a report on the following points :

1. “Whether very close relative(s) to the Executive Head of the State can be awarded Government contracts;
2. In the event this question is answered in the affirmative, what would be the norms for awarding contract to such persons.

Subsequently, on perusal of the CAG report as submitted, the Court has relisted the matter for February 14, 2024.

Case Details : Save Mon Region Federation And Anr v The State Of Arunachal Pradesh And Ors. W.P.(C) No. 54/2024 PIL-W