Kerala High Court rejects Opposition leader Satheesan's plea for CBI probe into KFON project

Kochi: In a boost to the Left government in the state, the Kerala High Court on Friday dismissed a plea by the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly V D Satheesan seeking quashing of the award of contracts for the KFON project and a CBI probe into it.

A bench of Justices A K Jayasankaran Nambiar and Syam Kumar V M said the material before the court does not persuade them to arrive at a prima facie finding regarding any illegality or irregularity in the implementation of the Kerala Fibre Optic Network (KFON) project.

"On the contrary, the prima facie view that emerges, after considering the explanation offered by the Advocate General on behalf of the respondents (state government), is that the KFON project appears to be well on course towards realisation of its stated objectives...

"This is more so because we are told that as of now connectivity through the optical fibre network already laid under the project, has been provided to 20,336 government offices and free internet has been provided to 5,484 economically backward families till date," the bench said.

Therefore, there is no reason to interfere with the decisions taken by the government and its departments regarding the project or stop them from implementing it, the court said.

"We also do not see it necessary to entrust an investigation into the allegations raised by the petitioner (Satheesan) to the CBI at this stage," it also said.

The court also termed as "premature" the allegations in the plea regarding the manner in which the KFON project was being implemented.

It further said that the challenge to the project contract awarded to the BEL consortium was "hopelessly belated." Satheesan, in his plea, had sought quashing of the project contract and a CBI probe into how it was awarded to the consortium based on certain remarks by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) casting doubts on the legality and propriety of the award of the contract to the BEL consortium.

The audit queries posed by the CAG in 2023 formed the basis of the allegations and grounds in the writ petition.

Based on the CAG remarks, Satheesan had claimed that the contract was awarded to the consortium at a price -- Rs 1,628.35 crore -- which was more than 50 per cent of the figure of Rs 1,028 crore sanctioned by the state government in 2017.

Rejecting his contentions, the court said that "views taken by the CAG as regards any loss caused to the exchequer remains only a viewpoint and cannot be accepted as decisive."

"In the present case, there is no report drawn up by the CAG as yet. ... the report of the CAG, as and when made available, can certainly be scrutinized by the legislature or the Public Accounts Committee and appropriate action taken based on their comments thereon.

"At this stage of the proceedings, we find that no grounds have been made out warranting an interference with the KFON project by this court in exercise of its powers under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. The writ petition fails and is accordingly dismissed," the bench said.

KFON is Kerala's own internet service, through which the government hopes to help strengthen digital infrastructure in the state. Kerala is the first state to declare the Internet as a fundamental right of the citizen.

A consortium of public sector companies including Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and Railtel, along with certain private companies, is executing the project.

The contract was awarded to them in 2019.

The objectives of the project are to set up a state-wide core optical fibre network that would provide connectivity to more than 30,000 government institutions, provide free internet to 20 lakh economically backward families and subsidised internet for others by leveraging the KFON infrastructure.