Centre to sue former PMs in Defence aircraft case

Centre to sue former PMs in Defence aircraft case
AGENCIES

NEW DELHI, APRIL 28: The Centre today informed Delhi High Court that it would file suits against former Prime Ministers Chandra Shekhar, P V Narasimha Rao and H D Deve Gowda for recovering dues worth Rs 11.80 crore for using Defence aircraft for non-official purposes during their tenure.

``The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has given approval for initiating legal proceedings against the three former prime ministers on April 5 and notices for filing the suits against each of them will be served within two days,'' Additional Solicitor General (ASG) S B Jaisinghani told a division bench, comprising Justice Arun Kumar and Justice D K Jain, during the hearing on a public interest litigation (PIL) on the issue.

Jaisinghani said the draft of the legal notices was ready and the opinion of legal experts had been sought by the Government.

He said Rajiv Gandhi's name was no longer on the defaulters' list as the Congress party had made a payment of Rs 1.86 crore for use of Defence aircraft by him for non-official purposes during his tenure.

The Congress, which had earlier agreed to pay the Rs 5.52 crore due from Rao in instalments, was now silent on the issue. The Government had given the party March 31 as the deadline for sending a communication in this regard, the ASG said.

However, Shekhar and Gowda's parties have raised certain objections on the payments, he told the court. Gowda's party, the Janata Dal (S), has in its communication claimed that he had used the Defence planes for party purposes and that the then Janata Dal President, Sharad Yadav, had to reply on the issue.

``This stand of Gowda is improper and, therefore, we have decided to give notices to each individual instead of the parties concerned as was done earlier,'' Jaisinghani said.

While Shekhar owes the Defence ministry Rs 5.91 crore, Gowda has to pay Rs 54.61 lakh, the court was informed.

Advocate B L Wadhera, who had filed the PIL, said notices should be issued to each former prime minister as they had used the planes and not the parties concerned.

The Samajwadi Janata Party, headed by Shekhar, had questioned the very basis of making the political parties responsible for paying for the unofficial journeys undertaken by the former prime ministers, the Defence Ministry affidavit said.

By raising objections on the very basis of the Government claim, the two parties in a way had disowned the liabilities, the affidavit said, adding that their pleas were not ``tenable''.

Another bench of the court is hearing another PIL seeking recovery of Rs 41.57 crore from Mulayam Singh Yadav for using Defence aircraft for personal purposes and describing them as ``official''.