New Delhi: The Supreme Court can entertain public interest petitions in matters of economic interest and scams running to crores of rupees, be it security transactions or fodder scams or Taj corridor, Justice S.H. Kapadia has said.

In his dissenting judgment in the petitions seeking cancellation of bail to Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi, Mr. Justice Kapadia said: "In this case we are concerned not with the merits of the allegations but with the decision-making process, be it in the posting of Special Judge Munilal Paswan or in the matter of the Revenue department not filing an appeal to the High Court against the orders of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal despite there being substantial questions of law arising from the judgment of the Tribunal."

Adverse remarks

Mr. Justice Kapadia said that in the appointment of Mr. Paswan the Patna High Court had not followed the due procedure. Pointing out the adverse remarks against Mr. Paswan, he said "it is not clear whether these remarks were ever noticed by the Committee [dealing with the selection] and if not they need to be re-looked by the High Court." He held that there was failure of statutory and public duty on the part of the Income Tax department in not filing an appeal to the High Court against the Tribunal's order. Referring to the legal opinion that there were no legal grounds for filing an appeal, Mr. Justice Kapadia said it was strange that even though the Tribunal had castigated high-ranking officers, the department chose not to prefer an appeal.

"Complicated questions"

Disagreeing with the two majority judges on entertaining PILs, Mr. Justice Kapadia said that in major scams "it is the economic interest of the country which is at stake. These cases are highly complicated in which complicated questions are involved and therefore posting [of a judge] plays a vital role." He said "the true value of a decision lies in its propriety and not in the decision being right or wrong."

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail