Maha govt cannot be mute spectator to whatever BMC does: HC

The Bombay High Court today said the Maharashtra government cannot be a "mute spectator" to whatever the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) does and it still had an overall supervisory jurisdiction and powers over the civic body.
A division bench of justices V M Kanade and P R Bora was hearing a petition filed by Vivekanand Gupta, who claimed serious irregularities by BMC in construction of roads between 2013 and 2016.
Gupta claimed the irregularities are to the tune of Rs 353 crore.
"You (government) cannot remain a mute spectator. You have powers over the civic body," the court said.
The bench directed the government to file a report asking if it extends any funding to the civic body and if it has any monitoring mechanism to check how much money is spent.

While the petition sought ACB probe in the case the bench refused and said the National Crime Records Bureau data proved that such cases with ACB have a zero per cent conviction rate.
The court asked the state police's special investigation team and the city police's economic offences wing (which are already probing the scam) to expedite their investigation.
The court was today informed that till date 24 people have been arrested in the case.