New Delhi: The Supreme Court today (July 16,2004) asked for proof of inaction on the part of Government from a petitioner seeking a high-level probe into purchase of arms, ammunition and other equipments during the Kargil War which allegedly caused a loss of Rs 2175 crore to the national exchequer.

When the public interest litigation (PIL) on this issue came up for hearing, a Bench comprising Chief Justice R C Lahoti, Justice G P Mathur and Justice C K Thakker asked the petitioner K G Dhananjay Chauhan to file proof of inaction on the part of the Government in this regard.

The respondents mentioned in the petition, based entirely on the much debated report of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), were the Defence Ministry, Chief of Army Staff and former Defence Minister George Fernandes.

The Court pointed it out to Petitioner's counsel D K Garg that the matter was widely debated in Parliament and what was the basis of the averment that no action had been taken.

Garg, who undertook to file proof in this regard, said that no action was taken to fix responsibility on any person despite the debate in Parliament. Referring to the alleged scams in purchase of arms, ammunition and equipment during the war, the petitioner said the country's Armed Forces suffered heavy casualties and to carry their bodies coffins were bought at a higher price resulting in loss to the exchequer.

The petitioner said that purchases for Armed Forces could not be treated as a "holy cow" and the stand of Fernandes in Parliament not to answer a question on procurement of Defence equipment from Israel was untenable.