Adarsh case: Expected govt to refuse to act on report: Justice Jayapal A Patil

MUMBAI: Ten years after he retired as Bombay high court judge, Justice Jayapal A Patil, a soft-spoken septuagenarian, handed out one of most hard-hitting findings in the Adarsh case-only for it to be rejected for being "unpalatable'' within five minutes by the state cabinet. The former judge himself says, "The rejection was not unexpected."

"When the findings were strict, it was expected that the government may refuse to act on it,'' Justice Patil, who headed the two-member state-appointed judicial panel to probe the Adarsh irregularities, told TOI on Saturday.

"I am satisfied at the work we did,'' he added, though. Justice Patil and former chief secretary P Subramanyam had put in more than two years on the task assigned to them. The amount of "labour,'' he admitted, was immense. "None of the findings or observations or statements made in the report are without evidence or documentary proof," he said. The panel had painstakingly recorded oral and written evidence by having witnesses examined and cross-examined at length. This has fructified in an almost 700-page report in Part Two of the findings.

"We took up the first two issues in the terms of reference first and completed it. There were 13 points and the first two dealt with the issue of land title and reservation. The government wanted it to be submitted first, so once we completed it, we immediately submitted the findings in a report.'' That was last April. "Obviously since the findings were in the state's favour (on the title of the land), the government accepted the report,'' he said.

The government can accept a report in full or part, he said, but it should not be done "arbitrarily".

"There should be reasons which should be in public interest,'' said the panel chief who turns 72 a day after Christmas.