NEW DELHI: In perhaps the severest criticism of a General Minister, the Supreme Court today held the former Petroleum Minister, Capt. Satish Sharma guilty of misuse of discretionary power in the allotment of 15 petrol pumps to VIPs and their relatives and ordered him to reply in two weeks why he should not be prosecuted for criminal breach of trust. The court quashed the former minister’s orders allotting the petrol pumps to the 15 persons and directed that those who had commissioned the pumps and were running the same shall stop operating them with effect from October 31, 1996.“Capt. Sharma shall further show cause within the said period why he should not, in addition, be made liable to pay damages for his action in allotting petrol pumps to the above mentioned 15 persons”, a division bench comprising Justice Kuldip Singh and Justice Faizan Uddin said in their 53page judgment on a public interest petition regarding corruption in high places.
The court held that it was obvious that Capt. Sharma was personally interested in making allotments of petrol pumps in favor of all these 15 persons. While six of the allottees are related to various officials working for the minister, two other are related to politicians. They are Sabjot Singh, son of former Union Minister Buta Singh and Benjamin K. Hollohan, son of Nagaland minister K. Hollohan. The remaining seven allottees are cither members of the Oil Selection Boards or their relations. The court held that these allotments were m4in an arbitrary manner and wet tally mala fide, the government ‘and oil companies shall take over the pump. Premises within 10 days.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 2, 1996
