Jharkhand High Court
Jena Tudu vs The State Of Jharkhand on 28 March, 2023
Author: Ananda Sen
Bench: Sanjaya Kumar Mishra, Ananda Sen
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JHARKHAND AT RANCHI
W.P. (PIL) No. 4022 of 2018
Jena Tudu ... ... ... ... ... ... Petitioner
Versus
1. The State of Jharkhand
2. The Chief Secretary, Jharkhand,
3. The Secretary, Department of Agriculture, Jharkhand
4. The Deputy Commissioner, East Singhbhum, Jamshedpur
5. The Additional Director General of Police, Anticorruption Bureau,
Ranchi.
6. The Principal Accountant General (Audit), Jharkhand, Ranchi
... ... ... Respondents
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CORAM: SRI SANJAYA KUMAR MISHRA, C.J.
SRI ANANDA SEN, J.
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For the Petitioner: Mr. Rajeev Kumar, Advocate
For the State: Mr. Mrinal Kanti Roy, G.A.-I
Mr. Rakesh Ranjan, A.C. to G.A.-I
For Resp. No.6: Mr. Sudarshan Shrivastava, Advocate
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18/Dated: 28.03.2023
The defect is ignored.
With consent of the learned counsels for the parties, this Public Interest Litigation is taken up for final hearing.
By filing this Public Interest Litigation the petitioner has prayed for issuance of a direction upon the respondents to investigate the allegations of embezzlement and misappropriation of public money committed by one Kalipad Mahto, District Agriculture Officer, East Singhbhum, who was also the District Soil conservation Officer, Ghatshila, Project Director, Atama, Seed Research Officer, Jamshedpur to the tune of Rs.11,08,000/-.
In the counter affidavit the respondents-State has stated that a criminal case being Gurabanda P.S. Case No. 11 of 2018 dated 11.06.2018 has been registered under Sections 420/406/34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1806 and 3(i), 13 of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 against the said Kalipad Mahato and others.
During pendency of the case, the Principal Accountant General (Audit), Jharkhand, was also made a party-respondent No.6. Respondent No.6 has also filed a counter affidavit wherein it is averred in paragraph 7 that the issue involved in the present case relates to the office of Soil -2- Conservation Officer, East Singhbhum, Jamshedpur and the answering respondent has considered the averments made in the writ application and it is found that last audit of the office of the Soil Conservation, East Singhbhum, Jamshedpur was conducted between 09.08.2019 to 19.08.2019 covering the period of accounts of May, 2015 to July, 2015, however, detailed audit of the scheme mentioned in this Public Interest Litigation has not been conducted. Only one work related to the scheme was test checked. It is further stated by respondent No.6 that annual audit plan has already been approved for 2022-23 by the office of the Comptroller & Auditor General of India and available resources have been accordingly allocated for Audit and the assigned works have been started and are at advance stage. In view of the aforesaid facts and circumstances, taking one or other Special/Performance Audit will require curtailment of already approved plan and such audit of entire scheme will take substantial time as well.
We have considered the matter. It is apparent from the records that respondent No.6 has finalised the annual plan for the financial year 2022-23 which is to end on 31st of March, 2023. Therefore, this writ application is disposed of directing respondent No.6 to include the projects/schemes involved in the writ application in their annual plan for the financial year 2023-24 and carry out the same and special inspection and audit shall be made with respect to the specific allegations made by the petitioner in the writ application.
With the aforesaid directions and observation, this Public Interest Litigation stands dispose dof.
Let a free copy of this order be supplied to the learned counsel appearing for respondent No.6 for early compliance.
Urgent copies as per Rules.
(Sanjaya Kumar Mishra, C.J.) (Ananda Sen, J.) Manoj/-