Making public the findings of a high-level committee which scrutinised 409 "tainted" petrol pump allotments made during the National Democratic Alliance's regime, the Supreme Court on Monday said it has suggested cancellation of 297 of them.

Immediately after the petrol pump allotment scandal came to light in 2002, the Vajpayee government had cancelled all 3,158 allocations made between 2000 and 2002.

However, the apex court on December 20 set aside the government order and asked a committee comprising retired
Supreme Court judge Justice S C Agrawal and retired high court judge Justice P K Bahri to scrutinise the allotments.

A Bench comprising Justice Y K Sabharwal and Justice D M Dharmadhikari, before whom the 21 volume report was
placed, said the committee has found irregularities in the allotment of 297 petrol pumps out of the "409 tainted
allotments referred for scrutiny."

"Almost 73 per cent of the allotments were found to be improperly made," the Bench observed while allowing inspection of the report by the counsels of the affected parties.

However, the court made it clear that it would not entertain any argument from the counsel of the affected parties on the question of facts which have been thoroughly examined by the committee.