JOIN USThe Supreme Court on Tuesday said it would consider the issue of maintainability of a plea filed by an NGO, Swaraj Abhiyan, which spoke about kickbacks in the purchase of VVIP choppers by certain states, after the Centre objected to a political party filing a PIL.
A bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra and R Banumathi said it would consider the issue of maintainability after four weeks.
Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Chhattisgarh government, has questioned the maintainability of the PIL for having been filed by a political party.
He said the CBI was investigating the scam relating to the purchase of 12 VVIP choppers made by AgustaWestland, but its ambit did not include the deal made by the state governments.
He pointed out the Comptroller and Auditor General had already looked into the issue and that the Public Accounts Committee of the state Assembly also examined it.
The court, meanwhile, considered a PIL seeking a probe by a Special Investigation team (SIT) into allegations of kickbacks of 6 million euro to some journalists in the AgustaWestland scam.
The petition filed by Hari Jaisingh, a journalist, sought directions to the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate to look into the role of journalists for alleged money laundering by allowing “influence peddling”.