Center of Indian Trade Unions v. The State of Maharashtra
Background
A trade union federation had challenged the Dabhol Power Project agreements between the Maharashtra State Electricity Board and Dabhol Power Corporation (promoted by Enron) before the Bombay High Court, alleging corruption and fraud; the High Court found the conduct of the authorities "questionable" but dismissed the petition for lack of supporting material. When the matter reached the Supreme Court in 1997, the Court refused leave on the question of the project's validity itself, but issued notice limited to the narrower question of the State of Maharashtra's accountability given its inconsistent stands over time. Over the following two decades a government-appointed Godbole Committee found serious governance failures, and a retired judge, Justice S.P. Kurdukar, was appointed to head a commission of inquiry that never actually functioned due to litigation and delay.
Decision Breakdown
By 2019, over a quarter-century after the project agreements were first executed, the only question left for the Court to decide was whether the long-dormant judicial commission of inquiry headed by Justice Kurdukar should be revived or continued. The Court held that, given the extreme delay, the unavailability of the original foreign project promoters and most of the officials involved, and the Godbole Committee's own view (shared by a majority of its members) that a commission of inquiry would serve no useful purpose at this stage, reviving the inquiry would be futile. The Court accordingly closed the petition without directing any further inquiry, while not disturbing the earlier 1997 order that had already refused leave on the broader validity of the power project agreements themselves.
Lesson Learnt
Courts can decline to revive or continue an inquiry into even serious allegations of corruption once decades have passed and so much delay has occurred that a meaningful investigation is no longer practically possible: a reminder of how damaging prolonged delay can be to accountability efforts, independent of their underlying merit.