Editor made PIL litigant

Corruption in regional transports offices in various states in the country is a routine phenomenon. State governments have not been able to curb this despite periodical complaints and disclosure in the print media. But besides routine corruption for license and other vehicular regulations, about eighteen regional transports officers in Marahtshatra are allegedly involved in another type of corruption.

The Marathi daily ‘Lokmat’ published a series of newsletters exposing the import of parts of two wheelers from foreign countries avoiding taxes of crores of rupees and after assembling them here they are sold at high prices with connivance of the regional transport officers (RTOs). An international gang is suspected to be involved in the deal the details of which are also disclosed in the news-stories. Although the Maharashtra government has not taken any initiative or action against the concerned officers, the High Court has taken cognizance of the whole exposure and on the basis of the series, a ‘sue moto’ public interest litigation  is recorded by making editor of the newspaper as PIL litigant with provision of an advocate to fight the case on his behalf.

The Lokmat’s Mumbai bureau chief Atul Kulkarni has carried out investigation and disclosed ‘modus operandi’ of the whole episode in his five news-letters. These  point out that foreign-made spare parts are brought from Singapore and other countries without paying any import duty and they are then assembled here without any legal brand or manufacturing license and then they are sold in open market at exorbitant prices. For this process, bogus names and addresses are used to legalize the vehicles for sales in an inter-state sales network. The gang involved in the deal is estimated to have sold over 6oo two-wheelers worth Rs.70 crore. Taxes and duty of about Rs.50 crore is estimated to be avoided by depriving the state government which did not receive any revenue.    

As pointed out in the newsletters the union government’s director of revenue intelligence (DIR) received the clue and collected the details and a simultaneous inquiry is being conducted. The DIR has names of the RTOs who have received money from a Dalal (middleman).After the exposure the concerned minister Swarupsing Naik had clarified that action will be taken against the concerned RTOs who will be transferred. It was also being decided to hand over the whole case to the CBI as the sale transactions are spread over in various states in the country. But despite the clarification and relevant discussion in Mantralaya at Mumbai, nothing actually materialized and the exposure received no corrective response from the Maharashtra government.    

However Justice B.H. Marlapalle of the Bombay High Court submitted the case to Chief Justice Swatantra Kumar and Justice Ajay Khanvilkar after getting the whole matter translated into English and then the Thana RTO office was made the defendant and Lokmat’s editor the petitioner. While the first hearing of the case was recently held and notice is issued to the Thana RTO office which is mainly involved in the deal. The case will now be heard as PIL which is a valuable precedent. Investigative journalism has received a new momentum with the judiciary taking cognizance of objectionable deals and corruption in government departments’ activities.