The Supreme Court on Friday referred to Attorney General a petition seeking a high-level probe into purchase of arms, ammunition and other equipments during the Kargil War, which allegedly caused a loss of Rs 2,175 crore to the national exchequer.

When the Public Interest Litigation filed by K G Dhananjay Chauhan on this issue came up for hearing, a bench of Chief Justice R C Lahoti and Justice G P Mathur appointed senior advocate Rakesh Dwiwedi as Amicus Curiae to assist the court when it comes up for hearing after three weeks.

During the last hearing on July 16, the court had asked the petitioner's counsel D K Garg as to why the court should interfere in the matter and also what was the proof that the government had taken no action against erring officials though wide-ranging debates took place in Parliament on the issue.

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.

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.