The Adarsh Housing society
Retired Bombay High Court judge, Justice JA Patil, who probed the Adarsh housing society scam has come down hard on the Maharashtra government for rejecting his report, which indicted four former chief ministers of the state. Speaking to NDTV, Justice Patil said that an amendment should be made in the Commission of Inquiry Act to make it binding for a government to accept probe reports.
Justice Patil was one of the two-member judicial commission, which was formed to probe the Adarsh scam. Former chief secretary of Maharashtra, P Subramanian, was the other member. Their 690-page report was submitted to the Maharashtra government in April 2013, but the government refused to table it in the assembly.
The report slammed politicians and bureaucrats alike, saying, "Adarsh not a saga of ideal cooperation but a shameless tale of blatant violations of statutory provisions, rules and regulations. It reflects greed, nepotism and favoritism on the part of some people."
In the report, former chief minister and Congress leader Ashok Chavan, who had stepped down after the scam rocked the state, had been slammed and indicted. The report said Mr Chavan and other bureaucrats gave permissions and clearances and it was a quid pro quo. It named Mr Chavan's three relatives and found them ineligible along with 25 other members of 102. The report also said Adarsh enjoyed the political patronage of Late Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sushil Kumar Shinde, Chavan, Sunil Tatkare and Rajesh Tope.
The report also said that Mr Shinde, who is now the Union Home Minister showed "undue haste" and overlooked objections raised by the Finance Department with regards to the allotment of land for the society.
The commission also found that 22 'benami' transactions took place and the society never sought any environmental clearances. It also named 12 bureaucrats and said they had violated service conduct rules.