Notice to Centre, Air India on purchase of 111 aircraft

Petition seeks probe by CBI into alleged scam in Rs 67k cr purchase

The Supreme Court on Friday issued notices to the Centre, Air India and others on a petition seeking a probe by the CBI into the alleged scam in purchase of 111 aircraft  between 2004-08 for a sum of Rs 67,000 crore in order to provide undue benefit to foreign manufacturers.

A bench of justices H L Dattu and C K Prasad also sought response from the CBI and Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) on the special leave petition filed by Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL).

The PIL filed by advocate Prashant Bhushan referred to the findings of two Parliamentary Committee reports and one by Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) , which had criticised the decisions of the Civil Aviation Ministry during the tenure of Praful Patel as minister.

The petition challenged the Delhi High Court’s judgment of June 1, which, while concurring with the contention of the petitioner that an investigation was required, refused to direct the CBI probe and said that the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) would look into the matter.

Though the HC agreed with the petitioner that there was a serious question mark on the bona fides of the decisions of the ministry, it did not refer the matter to the CBI or SIT for probe, the petition said.

According to the petitioner, the four decisions taken by the ministry viz. massive purchase of 111 aircrafts for national airlines, taking a large number of aircraft on lease, giving up profit-making routes and profit making timings in favour of international and national private airlines and then the merger of two national carriers Air India and Indian Airlines, were taken on “extraneous considerations that resulted in pecuniary benefit to private companies”.

Alleging that the purchase deals involved huge kickbacks like the defence deals, the petition said that the four actions were sufficient enough to make a case under the Prevention of Corruption Act.