JUDGMENT :

S. RAVINDRA BHAT, J.

1. Special leave granted in all the petitions. The appeals were heard with consent of counsel appearing for the parties to these proceedings.

2. The grievance of the appellants in these batch of appeals is with respect to a common judgment of the Aurangabad Bench of the Bombay High Court.¹ [dated 27.06.2019 in Criminal Public Interest Litigation No. 6/2018 with Public Interest Litigation No. 70/2014 and Criminal Application Nos. 2075, 2091 and 2107/2019]. In the criminal public interest litigation, the respondents (original writ petitioners, hereafter “PIL petitioners”) sought directions to the Union of India, the State of Maharashtra, the Maharashtra Housing and Urban Development Authority (MHADA) and state officials to initiate criminal proceedings against the responsible officers and office bearers of Municipal Council, Naldurg (hereafter “municipality”) and concerned contractors for misappropriation of government funds in implementation of the housing scheme in the municipality. Some appellants had filed criminal petitions, opposing the criminal proceedings, which were disposed of.

3. The PIL petitioners claimed to be social activists and former Councillors of the municipality who were involved in social activities, reforms and reconstruction of the society which included running a library (Lokmanya Book Library at Naldurg). They had also organized various camps like literacy camp for illiterate people, chalice (Panpoi) at public places during summer season, etc.

4. The Union of India implemented the Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme (IHSDP), through the State Government, under the “Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission” (hereafter “the Mission”) for providing basic services to the urban poor including security of tenure of affordable prices, improved housing, water supply, sanitation and ensuring delivery through convergence of other existing universal services of the government for education, health and social security. The Mission also aimed to ensure that the urban poor were provided housing. The scheme applies to all cities/towns under the Mission. The guidelines for Basic Services to the Urban Poor (BSUP) and IHSDP were issued in December 2005; pursuant to which, the state government appointed urban local bodies as nodal agencies. In this case, MHADA is the nodal agency.

5. In terms of a government resolution dated 03.02.2009, the construction cost for each dwelling house unit was Rs. 80,000/-. The minimum floor area of such dwelling house was to be 25 sq. metres at a minimum, with two rooms, a kitchen and a toilet bathroom. The funds for implementing the said scheme were in the ratio of 80:20 (between the Central Government and the State Government-Urban Local Bodies). Further, beneficiaries under the scheme had to contribute a minimum 12% and in case of reserved category the contribution was to be 10%. The nodal agency designated for implementation of the said scheme was responsible for inviting proposals from urban local bodies and thus, Respondent Nos. 3 and 6 - which are the nodal agencies - were responsible for and had control over implementation of the scheme within the state government. Naldurg in Osmanabad district was included under the scheme of IHSDP for providing houses to the poor people.

6. Pursuant to the scheme, a detailed project report was prepared, in terms of which 1206 houses for the poor were to be constructed. 737 beneficiaries belonging to reserved category and 469 from general category were identified as beneficiaries of the project. The cost of each house was fixed at Rs. 1,00,551/- the total cost of the project was fixed at Rs. 20,69,04,514/- of which cost for construction was Rs. 16,08,91,396/- and Rs. 4,11,17,000/- was the cost towards infrastructure. The municipality published a tender notice ² [In the “Daily Sakal” in its issue dated 26.08.2008]. The estimated cost of the work in the tender was Rs. 15,08,91,396/- and the time stipulate