By IANS,
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Monday restored the powers of Prasar Bharti Chief Executive Officer B.S. Lalli, permitting him to carry out the day-to-day functioning of the public broadcaster.
While restoring Lalli’s power, a bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan also accepted his plea for a continued vigilance probe into allegations of financial and administrative irregularities within the Prasar Bharti board in the issue of advertisements.
The bench included Justice P. Sathasivam and Justice B.S. Chauhan.
The bench partially suspended a Delhi High Court order of July 27 which among other things had asked a three-member team of Prasar Bharti to carry out the day-to-day functioning of the board.
The apex court also suspended the part of the high court order appointing a retired high court judge, Justice J.P. Singh, to oversee the next and subsequent meetings of the board.
The high court had ordered video recordings of the meetings, which the apex court allowed as the law governing Prasar Bharti itself provides for video or audio recording of its board meetings, explained advocate Anip Sachthey.
On Aug 18, a bench of Justice B.N. Agrawal and Justice G.S. Singhvi refused to suspend the high court’s order against Prasar Bharti and Lalli.
The high court had ordered a probe by the Central Vigilance Commission into alleged financial irregularities. The order was passed on a public interest lawsuit by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation.
The high court had ordered the probe on allegations that Prasar Bharti’s CEO had been refusing internal audit of the corporation’s finances though the public broadcaster awarded bids worth billions of rupees in the run up to the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
Appearing for Lalli, former attorney general Soli J. Sorabjee said that his client always favoured internal audit.