"Corruption" in ICCR: HC dismisses plea, terms it "misconceived"

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court today dismissed a plea seeking a direction to Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) to file an Action Taken Report into the allegations of corruption against several officials in the organisation.

A bench, headed by Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice R S Endlaw, while terming the plea as "misconceived", also refused to grant any relief to petitioner S M Matloob under the Whistleblowers Protection Act, 2011.

"The application, to say the least, is misconceived. The reliefs claimed in the application are based on events of a date subsequent to the disposal of the writ petition and have no bearing to the petition as originally filed. No such reliefs can be granted in a disposed of petition.

Matloob, who worked as librarian at ICCR, had earlier approached the High Court alleging misuse of funds at ICCR.

The high court had disposed of his plea noting that Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was investigating and inquiring into the allegations.

Later, another plea was filed by him averring that CBI was conducting a slow-paced investigation and that taking advantage of the same, one of the main accused being the former Director, Publication Division of ICCR, was leaving the country.

The plea had also sought a direction to CBI to complete the investigation in a time-bound manner.