- (1.) When this Court was seized of, Writ Petition filed by the "Common Cause, A Registered Society "with regard to the alleged misuse and arbitrary exercise of discretionary power by the Petroleum and Gas Ministry in relation to the allotment of retail outlets for Petroleum products and L.P.G. Dealership, from discretionary quota, a news item in box with a caption "Pumps for all"was published in the daily newspaper "The Sunday Tribune"dated March 10, 1996 which is reproduced hereunder :- "Pumps for all ! Believe it or not, Petroleum Minister, Satish Sharma has made 17 allotments of petrol pumps and gas agencies to relatives of Prime Minister, Narasimha Rao out of his discretionary quota. Allotments in this category can only be made to members of the weaker sections of society and war widows. Yet five of the Prime Minister's grandchildren have been favoured as have been five of his nephews from the family of V. Rajeshwar Rao, MP. Besides, three wards of his brother Manohar Rao, two relatives of P. Venkata Rao and the son of AVR Krishnamurthy whose family lives with the Prime Minister have been allocated petrol pumps and gas agencies. Similarly Rao's daughter, Vani Devi, who is the official hostess has a petrol pump allotted in the name of her daughter, Jyotirmai. She was also favoured by the Airport Authority of India which released a prime piece of land located in Begumpet area to her for just Rs. 3 lakhs. The market value is stated to be over Rs. 1 crore. It has been registered in the name of Shri Jai Balaji Agency. However, the Prime Minister's kin are not the only ones who have benefited from these allotments. Two children of Lok Sabha Speaker Shivraj Patil have also been favoured as have the two sons of a senior Judge of the Supreme Court. Interestingly; the Supreme Court had recently asked the Government to supply a list of all discretionary allotments made by the Ministry. However, the Minister has so far managed to withhold this crucial document. But it has hardly helped as the list has been leaked by Sharma's own men."
(2.) A similar news item was also published in the Hindi newspaper "Punjab Kesari "dated March 10, 1996. The English translation of which is as follows :- "17 Poor Members of the family of the Prime Minister Out of the short cut ways of becoming rich, one way is to obtain Petrol Pump or Gas Agency. But the power to allot the same lies with the Petroleum Minister. He has the discretionary powers to allot petrol pump or Gas agencies in charity. This power of doing such charities has been entrusted in some special cases which include the people belonging to the poor, backward classes and the wives of those who were killed in the war. But all those persons to whom these agencies have been allotted by the Petroleum Minister, Capt. Satish Sharma turned out to be a scam in itself. The matter was referred to the Supreme Court in which the Government was directed to submit a list. The Petroleum Minister suppressed the list. The list was demanded in the Parliament. But the list was not presented. Now the list has been leaked out from the Petroleum Ministry. Believe it, there are 17 relatives of the Prime Minister, Narasimha Rao in that list. Five persons are his grand-sons and grand-daughters. Five others are the members of the family of V. Rajeswhar Rao. He is a Member of Parliament and the relative of the prime Minister, Manohar Rao is the brother of Narasimha Rao. These agencies were also allotted to his three children. There is one more relative - P. Venkatrao. Two allottees have been found in his family. One is A.V.R. Krishna Murty who resides in the residence of the Prime Minister. He had also been allotted the Agency at the Bolaram Road at Sikandrabad. But the most interested story is of Jyotirmai, Narasimha Rao is his real grand maternal father. The authorised hostess of the Prime Minister's residence is Vani Devi who is the daughter of the Prime Minister and mother of Jyotirmai. Their agency is situated at Begumpet under the name and style "Sri Sai Balaji Agency. "The land of 2000 Sq.M. of the Indian Aviation Authority was given to Sri Sai Balaji Agency merely for rupees three lakhs. Presently, the cost of this land is more than one crore. The Petroleum Minister also allotted the agencies to the two children of Shivraj Patil, Speaker of the Lok Sabha. You should not be astonished if you find the names of two sons of Mr. Ahmadi, Chief Justice of India in the list of the discretionary quota. Otherwise the names of such poor and backward persons are also available in this list."
(3.) Since, the aforesaid news items contained an allegation that two sons of a senior judge of the Supreme Court and two sons of the Chief Justice of India were also favoured with the allotments of petrol outlets from the discretionary quota of Ministry and, therefore, by our order dated March 13, 1996, we issued a notice to the Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas to file an affidavit offering his comments and response to the facts stated in the aforesaid two news items. Pursuant to the said notice. Shri Vijay L. Kelkar, Secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India, filed his affidavit dated March 20, 1996 stating that since the allegation regarding allotment under the discretionary quota in favour of two sons of a senior Judge of the Supreme Court are vague and in the absence of specific names, it is difficult to deal with the same. Thereafter when the matter again came up before this Court on March 21, 1996, Shri Altaf Ahmad, learned Additional Solicitor General stated that he would look into the records and file further affidavit of a responsible officer giving response to the other allegations regarding relationship of VIPS. We, therefore, granted time for the purpose and at the same time directed the relevant files to be produced in Court. It was thereafter that Shri Devi Dayal, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India filed his affidavit dated March 28, 1996. In paragraph 5 of his affidavit, he made a categorical statement that there is no allotment in favour of son/sons of any Supreme Court Judge. After verification of records and affidavits referred to above, we found that the news items referred to above were patently false and, therefore, by our Order dated March 27, 1996, we initiated contempt proceedings against the Editors and Publishers of the daily "The Sunday Tribune", Chandigarh and "The Punjab Kesari", Jalandhar and issued notices to them to show cause why they may not be punished for the contempt of this Court.;