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Save Mon Region Federation v. The State of Arunachal Pradesh

Writ Petition (Civil) · 2026 INSC 320Decided 6 Apr 2026
W.P.(C) No.-000054 - 2024
Justice Vikram Nath · Justice Sandeep Mehta · Justice N.V. Anjaria

Background

Save Mon Region Federation, a civil society organisation from Arunachal Pradesh, along with a local resident, filed a public interest writ petition alleging that public works contracts in the state were being awarded through favouritism and without competitive tendering, benefiting the Chief Minister and persons closely connected to him and his associates. The petitioners pointed to a related CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) report on earlier allegations that found repeated departures from tender-based procurement and serious documentation gaps, and sought a court-directed independent investigation by a Special Investigation Team or the CBI covering procurement irregularities roughly between 2015 and 2025.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the nature of the allegations, the close institutional proximity of those implicated to the state government, and the recurring gaps in the procurement record made it necessary to hand the matter to an agency independent of the state executive, rather than a state-supervised SIT. It directed the CBI to register a preliminary enquiry within two weeks and conduct a time-bound investigation into public works contracts awarded in Arunachal Pradesh between 1 January 2015 and 31 December 2025, specifically examining awards to the named respondents and their associates, the tendering process, custody of records, beneficial ownership of contractor entities, and fund flows. The Court also directed the state government to fully cooperate, preserve all records, designate coordination officers, and required the CBI to file a status report within sixteen weeks, while clarifying that its observations were not findings on the merits of the underlying allegations.

Lesson Learnt

When public interest litigation shows a credible, recurring pattern of procurement irregularities connected to persons in positions of state power, courts can bypass a state-supervised inquiry and direct an independent central investigating agency, precisely because internal or state-controlled investigations may lack institutional independence when the state's own functionaries are implicated.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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