Court questions conduct of ministries

As Special Judge O P Saini acquitted all the 21 accused in the 1.76 lakh crore scam which rocked the country, he raised strong questions on the conduct of the officials of the various ministries including officials from the Prime Minister Office (PMO) and working mechanism of the babus.

The Special Judge also put former Union Law Minister Hansraj Bhardwaj in the dock, noting that a contrary opinion was given by the veteran Congress leader to apparently stall the process of issuing new 2G licenses under A Raja's instructions.

Special Judge Saini also held that the opinion of Law Ministry was 'wholly outlandish and was aimed at creating unnecessary controversy and stalling the process of licensing in the DoT".

"The facts and circumstances rightly show that the opinion of Law Ministry, on the face of it, was malafide having been obtained against established procedure of government working… It appears that the contrary opinion was aimed not at facilitating smooth disposal of applications by DoT but stalling the process of issue of new licences by it," held Saini.

The trial court also noted the case of Vijay Priyadarshi, the investigating officer stating that the IO could not collect any evidence, oral or documentary, from the Ministry of Environment and Forests(MOEF) regarding the meetings of accused.

"The investigating officer admitted that he did not investigate the issue of roll­out obligations and clearance of dues," the court said.

The court, while highligting the irresponsible behaviour of the officials said, "It is the result of their (officials) lack of sense of responsibility and clarity about the way official business is to be conducted. Not only this, most of the officers have exhibited fickle mindedness and timidity by disowning the written official record," the court said.

The judge also questioned the manner in which the officials passed the baton of blames on each other even disowning the record prepared by them. While doing so he put under the scanner the manner in which officials like Manju Madhavan (Finance Secretary), AK Shrivastava, (NALCO Chairman), Nitin Jain, Director (ASI), PK Mittal, DDG (AS­II) passed the buck on others to save there misdoings.

"Official record prepared by a public servant in the ordinary course of business is deemed to be correct and truthful and is considered sacrosanct. It is more so in the case of officers as senior as Joint Secretary, Special Secretary and the Secretary to Government of India, because they constitute the core of governance in the country. Their actions become precedent for the future.

However, the court remarked that all such superior ranks officials, "endeavoured hard to disown their own notes and blame others, that is, the accused, for everything done by them" adding that the conduct of the officials "deserves strong disapproval".

"Similarly, PW 92 PK Mittal, DDG (AS­II), also tried to shift the blame to Siddhartha Behura by making oral statements for the note regarding intra­service roaming. He had not mentioned anywhere in the note that it was being done as desired by the Secretary. He also disowned the official note recorded by him by making oral statement," the court said.

The court raised its eye brows on PK Malhotra, Joint Secretary (Law) and noted, how could he recalled the file by oral orders once it had reached the safe custody of DoT and was also seen and signed by an officer superior in rank to him?

What the court said

• The Special Judge put former Union Law Minister Hansraj Bhardwaj in the dock, noting that a contrary opinion was given by him to apparently stall the process of issuing new 2G licenses under A Raja’s instructions. 
• Special Judge Saini also held that the opinion of Law Ministry was ‘wholly outlandish and was aimed at creating unnecessary controversy and stalling the process of licensing in the DoT”.