Plea in Supreme Court alleges grant of business contracts to family members of Arunachal CM Pema Khandu

A plea has been filed before the Supreme Court alleging grant of business contracts to the family members of Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister (CM) Pema Khandu [Save Mon Region Federation and Anr. v State of Arunachal Pradesh and Ors.].A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra issued notice on the plea..The plea by Save Mon Region Federation has sought an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into contracts for public works being awarded to select firms owned by close family members of Khandu.The plea said that in light of evidence of government contract works being allotted only to the firms of family members of the Chief Minister and his close associates, an inference can be reasonably drawn that such favouritism in government contracts would not have been possible without direct knowledge, consent and active support of the CM.The plea alleged that construction company M/s Brand Eagles, owned by Khandu's wife, has been awarded a large number of government contracts despite there being a clear conflict of interest. It further highlighted that when Pema Khandu's father, late Dorjee Khandu, was the CM of Arunachal Pradesh, the firm was in Pema's name and was awarded contracts without tender processes.Dorjee Khandu's second wife Rinchin Drema and his nephew Tsering Tashi have been impleaded as respondents. Tashi is the MLA for Tawang District and owns M/s Alliance Trading Co.The plea alleged that numerous contracts have been awarded to M/s Alliance Trading Co. in clear violation of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Code of Conduct for Ministers..The plea was filed by advocate Prashant Bhushan who informed the Court that a similar plea was already under consideration by Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela Trivedi. He said that in that case, he had filed an interlocutory application (IA) following which the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) was directed to submit a note detailing the guidelines followed in the grant of contracts to family members.Accordingly, CJI DY Chandrachud took note of the issue and issued a formal notice on the plea.