The Bombay High Court has recently (February 14) dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking directions to respondent authorities to appoint an appropriate enquiry committee to conduct an inquiry in respect of the works of Water Supply Scheme at village Kaygaon, Taluk Sillod, District Aurangabad executed under the Employment Guarantee Scheme and to take further action against persons responsible for misappropriation of government funds and for that purpose issue necessary orders.
It is alleged by the petitioner Nilkanth that the private respondents have indulged in misappropriation of public funds while construction of wells and pipelines under the Employment Guarantee Scheme were in progress and no steps have been taken against them.
The petitioner seeks an order so that such allegations of misappropriation may be examined at the first instance by an enquiry committee to be appointed by the High Court.
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On perusal of the PIL, the Division Bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice N.B. Suryawanshi did not find any averment of lodging of any FIR by the petitioner with the police.
The Court held that once it is alleged that public funds have been misappropriated, which is a criminal offence, it is normal to expect the criminal law to be set in motion by lodging an FIR.
S.S. Thombre, advocate for the petitioner, does not dispute that FIR has not been lodged by the petitioner and that the High Court has been approached directly without police being called upon to investigate the alleged criminal offence.
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“It is settled law that when the law provides a machinery for redress and such machinery is not invoked, it would not be a proper exercise of jurisdiction to entertain a PIL. In view of the same, we are disinclined to entertain this public interest litigation,” the Court said while dismissing the PIL.