Dr. Pentapati Pulla Rao v. Union Of India And ORS.

$~17 * IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI Date of Decision: 9th October, 2019 + W.P.(C) 9973/2019 DR. PENTAPATI PULLA RAO ..... Petitioner Through:

Mr. Sravan Kumar & Mr.Subhranshu Dash, Advs.

versus UNION OF INDIA AND ORS.

..... Respondents Through:

Mr. Akshay Makhija, CGSC with Ms.Roshni Namboodiry, Advs. for R-1 & R-2 Mr. Anupam S. Sharma, SPP with Mr. Prakarsh Airan, Adv. for CBI Mr. Ravinder Agarwal, Adv. for R-4

CORAM:

HON'BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE C.HARI SHANKAR

JUDGMENT

D.N. PATEL, CHIEF JUSTICE (ORAL) 1.

This public interest litigation has been preferred with the following prayers:

"(a) Issue Writ, order, direction in the nature of Writ of Mandamus declaring the inaction of the Respondents as illegal in taking action on the complaints made by Petitioner and other public spirited persons.

(b) Issue Writ, order, direction in the nature of Writ of Mandamus directing the Respondents to take action and submit a report to this Hon'ble Court on the representations/complaints annexed as Annexure P-1 to P5. W.P.(C) 9973/2019 Page 1 of 3

(c) Issue Writ, order, direction in the nature of Writ of Mandamus directing the Respondent No.l to take control of National Project for bringing transparency and punishing the persons who adopted corrupt practices by causing loss to public exchequer.

(d) Direct Respondents to decide the complaint Nos. PMOPG/D/2017/0001357, PMOPG/D/2019/0290172 and submit a report to this Hon'ble Court.

(e) Direct Central Bureau of Investigation to register a case on the complaint dated 22.5.2017 made by Late Palvai Govardan Reddy as per the Lalita Kumari Judgment of Hon'ble Supreme Court of India and submit inquiry report to this Hon'ble Court.

(f) Direct Central Bureau of Investigation to take action on the 'Comprehensive Report of the Experts Committee on Polavaram Irrigation Project, Head Works, Hydroelectric Power Project, Left Main Canal, Right Main Canal and all subsidiary works concerned with it' dated 23.7.2019 annexed with the Writ Petition as Annexure P-8.

(g) Direct the Respondents to investigate on the public statements made by Prime Minister of India on the massive corruption in execution of Polavaram Project." 2.

Having heard the counsel for petitioner and counsel for respondent No.1, it appears that there are several allegations as stated in para 4 of the memo of this petition and it is also stated in para 10 that cost of the Polavaram Irrigation Project has been enhanced to ₹57,941 crores from the inital cost of ₹16,010 crores. Allegations of corruption etc. have also been raised in this petition.

3.

Keeping in view the allegations and averments made in this writ petition, suffice it will be for the disposal of this petition at this stage if the writ petition is treated as a representation and the same is considered by the respondent No.1.

4.

Accordingly, we hereby direct respondent No.1 to treat this writ W.P.(C) 9973/2019 Page 2 of 3

petition as a representation. The respondent No.1 shall consider the grievances ventilated by the petitioner and disposed of the representation as early as possible and practicable after looking to the facts of the present case. While deciding the representation, if need arises, respondent No.1 can take opinions/views from the rest of the respondents. 5.

With the aforesaid observations, this writ petition is dismissed. CHIEF JUSTICE C.HARI SHANKAR, J OCTOBER 09, 2019 ns W.P.(C) 9973/2019 Page 3 of 3