The Gauhati High Court recently directed the Assam government to place the matter related to alleged embezzlement of funds meant for Social Welfare Department to be placed before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) so that in case any illegality is found, necessary remedial actions can be taken by the competent authority.
The Division Bench of Chief Justice (Acting) N. Kotiswar Singh and Justice Soumitra Saikia heard a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed seeking certain directions to take appropriate actions for the alleged embezzlement of funds involving crores of rupees relating to the Social Welfare Department which are meant for the children, based on a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) dated 05.12.2012 relating to the period from 2009-2010 up to 2017-2018.
It has been submitted by the petitioner that because of such embezzlement of huge public amounts, the matter requires to be investigated into by an independent agency.
In this regard, the Government Advocate has submitted that first of all any PIL is not maintainable based purely on the CAG report. Further, if there be any anomaly as alleged, the competent authority to look into it, is the Public Accounts Committee which is to examine any reports submitted by the CAG and which may take necessary remedial steps if discrepancies are found. Therefore, it has been submitted that it will be most appropriate that this matter which is based on the CAG report be referred to the PAC for consideration.
A.R. Bhuyan, the counsel for the petitioner, has also no objection so long as any such irregularities are considered by the competent authority and appropriate remedial and penal actions are taken against those persons responsible for embezzlement of public money.
Under the circumstances, the Bench is of the view that since the allegations of embezzlement are based primarily on the CAG report, the competent forum i.e the Public Accounts Committee may have a look at the same so that in case any illegality is found, necessary remedial actions can be taken by the competent authority.
Accordingly, the Bench directed the State Government to place these reports of the CAG along with the matter to the PAC within the period of 8 (eight) weeks for doing the needful.