The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to entertain the Maharashtra government’s request for closing an appeal filed by the Centre for Indian Trade Union in 1997 alleging corruption by, and paybacks to, politicians and bureaucrats in the setting up of the Enron-promoted Dabhol power plant in the State.
Two decades after the case was filed in the court, a Bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and Sanjeev Khanna decided to revive the special leave petition, saying the serious accusations should be taken to their logical conclusion. The Bench asked counsel for Maharashtra to inform the court on March 13 of the steps needed to be taken.
A high-powered committee, headed by Madhav Godbole, was formed to review the 2,184-MW, $3-billion project. It had recommended the constitution of a judicial commission. The committee had said the deal showed utter failure of governance at almost every step of the decision-making process. It was critical of former Chief Minister Sharad Pawar; the BJP-led government at the Centre, which had a tenure of 13 days in 1996; and the Shiv Sena-BJP coalition that entered office in the State.