Five years after The Indian Express exposed the nationwide allotment of petrol pumps to the relatives and friends of the BJP by the NDA government at the Centre, the Supreme Court today stamped its approval on the cancellation of over 70% of the allotments highlighted by the newspaper.

The verdict from the outgoing Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal, who retires on January 14, comes in line with the report submitted by the two-member court-appointed committee.

The bench headed by Justice Sabharwal said those allotments cancelled on the basis of the report will have to close their outlets within three months.

The court rejected the contention that the court-appointed committee, comprising former Supreme Court judge S C Agarwal and former Delhi High Court Justice P K Bahri, did not have the jurisdiction to go into the issue of allotment.

However, those allotments that were protected by the interim order will continue until further orders of the court. The Bench referred the matter to the registry for placing it before the next Chief Justice to assign the matter to another bench.

The two-member committee was appointed to look into the procedure adopted by the Dealer Selection Boards for approving the allotments after a reported expose in 2002.

The committee had said that most of the allotments were illegal and were given on extraneous considerations and had recommended cancellation of such allotments. The apex court on the basis of the report cancelled many of them. Over 400 cases of tainted allotment reported by The Indian Express were referred to the Committee.

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