New Delhi, April 9
The Supreme Court today refused to interfere with the army’s court of inquiry (COI) against Lt Gen (retd) Avadhesh Prakash in the Sukna land scam case, observing that the inquiry was only a fact finding exercise.

Dismissing his petition seeking quashing of the COI, a Bench of justices VS Sirpurkar and MK Sharma directed the General to submit himself to the inquiry and clarified that the petitioner could approach the court again if he was aggrieved by the final outcome. When senior counsel for the petitioner, Mukul Rohtagi, argued that the inquiry was replete with irregularities, the Bench remarked: “Once we start digging, many skeletons will tumble out.”

Prakash had been indicted by a COI for his alleged role in issuing no-objection certificate to a private realtor for building an educational institute over a 71-acre land adjacent to the Sukna military station in West Bengal. The Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) has ordered a fresh COI following his complaint that he was not allowed to cross-examine the witnesses.

The apex court also rejected his plea that his juniors were conducting the COI. Sometimes, high courts heard matters pertaining to the Supreme Court, the Bench remarked in an obvious reference to the apex court appeal in Delhi HC to decide whether the office of the Chief Justice of India came under the purview of the transparency law, the Right to Information (RTI) Act.