Chandigarh, August 26
In just over six years after the Punjab and Haryana High Court took a serious note of a news item appearing in The Tribune on huge amounts of industrial subsidy being siphoned off to ghost units, Mr Justice Jawahar Lal Gupta and Mr Justice S.S. Grewal today directed the issuance of a notice to the then Punjab Director of Industries and Commerce D.S. Kalha, besides the then Additional Director Sanjay Kumar, to show cause why directions for criminal prosecution should not be given. Both of them are IAS officers.
Issuing the directions, the Judges observed that so far as the government was concerned even a charge sheet was not apparently issued to the officers. The Judges added: "However, in the circumstances of the case, we consider it appropriate to direct that the officers should show cause why even in their case directions for criminal prosecution, along with the other accused, be not given".
Speaking for the Bench, Mr Justice Gupta ruled that the officers were admittedly holding supervisory posts in the industries department and prima facie it was their duty to ensure that no payment was made to the units which were not entitled to it.
Quoting the findings recorded by the Central Bureau of Investigation, Mr Justice Gupta added that the officers were responsible "for disbursing the subsidy in favour of the non-functional or non-viable industrial units in 1996".
Earlier during the proceedings, Punjab's Additional Secretary in the Department of Industries and Commerce, in an affidavit submitted before the Court, stated that charge sheets had been issued to 10 officers.
The CBI, it may be recalled, had claimed that subsidy had been paid to four non-existent industrial units. The payment was made
on the basis of false and bogus bills showing the purchase of machinery, among other things. The agency had, thus, recommended the prosecution of “persons receiving the money on the basis of bogus bills”. As far as the officials processing the cases and permitting the payment were concerned, regular departmental action was recommended.
A copy of the Tribune report, published on May 13, 1996, had earlier been forwarded by retired engineer-in-chief K.B. Gupta. After going through it, the letter was ordered to be treated as a writ petition.
