Bhopal:
Thanks to Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led Madhya Pradesh government, it was silver lining evening for around 240 VVIPs including Chief Justice of India TS Thakur and other judges of the Supreme Court along with their spouses when they were served dinner in sliver crockery and presented gifts worth several lakhs in April.
All the invitees were given the status of “State Guest” during the period of their stay to attend the programme, which was inaugurated by President Pranab Mukherjee, according to information received in response to an RTI query filed by social activist Ajay Dubey.
A payment of Rs 6.94 lakh was made by the state government for the dinner hosted on April 14 during the ‘Judges’ Retreat’ programme. About Rs 3.57 lakh was paid for silver crockery and Rs 3.37 lakh for food, according to the file notings provided by the government.
A bill of Rs 3,17,270 was also approved for the retreat to meet expenditure incurred on high tea and gifts etc, the file notings said.
“All the judges and their spouses were given dinner in silver crockery and gifts at the cost of tax payers’ money. We are not against dinner but unnecessary expenses on silver crockery and gifts,” said Dubey.
In reply to another RTI query filed by Dubey, the National Judicial Academy (NJA) has asked him to define ‘hospitality’ as a prerequisite for disclosure of details of expenses incurred on the programme.
The President had on April 16 formally inaugurated the 4-day ‘Fourth Retreat of the Judges of the Supreme Court’ at the academy, which is a Union government-funded training institute for Judicial Officers.
