Four former PMs face legal action

The ASG said the action was `deferred’ because of the Lok Sabha elections as the government did not want to take any coercive measures after announcement of polls as it would have been construed in a different manner in different quarters.

To a specific query by the bench about the legal course of action, Jaisinghani said the Government might file suit for recovery of the money.

The court,however, declined the ASG’s request to issue notices to the defaulters saying if the government was not able to recover the money, then it would see what action should be taken.

The court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking recovery of the dues from late premier Rajiv Gandhi, former prime ministers Chandra Shekhar, P V Narasimha Rao and H D Deve Gowda for using the IAF planes for personal purposes.

The PIL by advocate B L Wadhera had alleged that Rs 5.92 crore were due from Chandra Shekhar, Rs 5.52 crore from Rao, Rs 1.86 crore from Gandhi and Rs 26.46 lakh from Gowda.

The petitioner told the court that the Government should apply the same method to recover the money as was being done in the case of recovery of land revenue.

The court had in March issued notices to ministries of defence and finance and the Chief of Air Staff directing them to file status report about the expenditure on use of IAF planes by prime ministers when on unofficial tours.

The ASG during last hearing whileadmitting failure of successive governments to recover the money, had said that the amount mentioned in the PIL was not disputed by the government.

Besides the defence and finance ministries, the Chief of Air Staff and the four former prime ministers, the petitioner had also named Sonia Gandhi, a legal heir of Rajiv Gandhi, as respondent.

The petitioner said since the government had failed to recover the money during all these years, the court should issue direction to the concerned ministries to take immediate steps to realise the outstanding amount with interest.