Report on illegal diversion of revenues that could have accrued under Consolidated Fund and Public Account of India

1.0.       The following offences have been committed by the offenders named herein, named against each offense. The matter came to light when the Zoom video conference conducted by a dubious Indian Maritime Federation with the Honorable Minister of Shipping as the Chief Guest was investigated into, in the backdrop of Covid19 situation and Chinese murderous aggression and in the light of governing laws when the following offences came to light . All the repeated warnings contained in my trailing Email dated Wed 10-06-2020 14:48 notwithstanding and despite forwarding specific MHA Advisory against Zoom, a dubious organization like the so called International Maritime Federation has railroaded the  Honorable Minister of Shipping  and the learned Directorate General of Shipping into the perilous quagmire of Zoom, the lethal Chinese Videoconference Software, that has by now possibly downloaded all our Ministry’s data into their Beijing-based servers.

1.1.       List of offenses to be investigated into.

Unlawful Approval of International Maritime Federation as an Instrumentality of State under Art. 12 of the Constitution without a law being enacted like LIC Act, 1956, GIC Act, 1972, JNU Act, 1966, UGC Act, 2019, IIT Act, 1961, IMU Act, 2008, so on and so forth.

Illegal Declaration of International Maritime Federation as a Competent Authority under the Flag Right Declaration of 1921 read with STCW1978 as amended from time to time.

Illegal  Declaration of the International Maritime Federation  as the Competent Authority for receipt of money that would have come to the account of the Consolidated Fund of the State or the public account of the State or the custody or issue of such money under Article 199 in The Constitution Of India.

Unconstitutional diversion of public funds received from various seafarers required to be credited to the Consolidated and Public Fund of India respectively under Art. 265 and 266 of the Constitution to the private coffers of a body corporate namely International Maritime Federation.

Serious frauds committed by International Maritime Federation to collect protection money in the garb of subscriptions from other ‘member companies’ – Needs to be investigated by the Serious Fraud Investigations Agency including allegations of Money Laundering by the companies concerned.  

Unauthorized communication with a foreign agency, in violation of Sections 3, 4 and 5 of under the Official Secrets Act, 1923, for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the State, which is calculated to be or might be, or is intended to be, directly or indirectly, useful to any enemy  nation.

Compromising of Secure electronic records in violation of Sec. 14 of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

Illegal Recognition of Chinese Authorities for Encryption of the Data of Indian Users in contravention of Sec. 19 of the Information Technology Act, 2000

Passing on personal data of users including that of the Honorable Minister of Shipping and his personal staff to the Servers in China, an enemy country in violation of Sec. 4 and 43A to the Enemy Nation.

Unlawful Approval of International Maritime Federation as an Instrumentality of State under Art. 12 of the Constitution

2.0.       Fraud committed by International Maritime Federation in connivance with Directorate General of Shipping and Ministry of Shipping

2.1.1. Article 266 in The Constitution of India 1949

266. Consolidated Funds and public accounts of India and of the States

(1) Subject to the provisions of Article 267 and to the provisions of this Chapter with respect to the assignment of the whole or part of the net proceeds of certain taxes and duties to States, all revenues received by the Government of India, all loans raised by that Government by the issue of treasury bills, loans or ways and means advances and all moneys received by that Government in repayment of loans shall form one consolidated fund to be entitled the Consolidated Fund of India, and all revenues received by the Government of a State, all loans raised by that Government by the issue of treasury bills, loans or ways and means advances and all moneys received by that Government in repayment of loans shall form one consolidated fund to be entitled the Consolidated Fund of the State

(2) All other public moneys received by or on behalf of the Government of India or the Government of a State shall be entitled to the public account of India or the public account of the State, as the case may be

(3) No moneys out of the Consolidated Fund of India or the Consolidated Fund of a State shall be appropriated except in accordance with law and for the purposes and in the manner provided in this Constitution.

If it were so, how the International Maritime Federation collected huge moneys from various seafarers for issue of competency certificates for watchkeeping and several other certificates for certain categories of seamen for a period over four years until it was stopped as late as 19th July 2019, when the provisions were revoked. It was a total fraud on the part of DG Shipping on Government, polity, parliament, International Maritime Organization and Indian seafarers that the following certificates that are authorized by the International Maritime Organisation under STCW1978 read with 1921 Declaration recognizing the Right to a Flag of States having no Sea-coast adopted at Barcelona on 20 April 1921, TEXT: League of Nations, Treaty Series , vol.7, p.73. ratified by India on October 31st, 1922

1.   Certificate of Proficiency for rating forming part of engineering watch

2.   Certificate of Proficiency for rating forming part of a navigational watch

3.   Certificate of Proficiency for Able seafarer engine,

4.   Certificate of Proficiency for Able seafarer deck,

5.   Certificate of Proficiency for Electro- Technical Ratings.

6.   Certificate of Proficiency for basic training for oil and chemical tanker cargo operations and

7.   Certificate of Proficiency for basic training for gas tanker cargo operations.

Thus the DG Shipping defrauded the Legislature namely Parliament, Government of India, International Maritime Organisation, in total violation of Art. 265, 266 & Art. 299 of the Constitution, Allocation of Business Rules, 1961, Merchant Shipping Act, 1958, Merchant Shipping (STCW) Rules, 2014 with total impunity and above all public trust.

2.3.0. Compromise of National Security and Violation of IT Act, 2000 and Official Secrets Act 1923.

It was a calamity that the Honorable Minister of Shipping did not pay heed to my well informed advice and did participate in the Webinar hosted by International Maritime Federation for their own vested interests on the weird Chinese Zoom technology, exposing the nation to the horrors of State-sponsored cyber-hacking, as the screenshots placed alongside may throw light if you like. Of course, the Honorable Minister of Shipping is not aware Zoom directs all the user data of the conference participants to servers based in China, where it isn’t safe under their law, as China doesn’t enforce many laws protecting users’ privacy. But Sir, you were well informed well in time.

2.4.1. Pentagon bans Zoom

 The platform on which the Videoconferencing was done was Zoom, the Chinese web-based Software. Pentagon has banned most versions of this popular video conferencing application for its personnel after reports surfaced revealing major security issues linked to China .Service members, civilians and contractors have been precluded from use of all the versions of Zoom in official and personal capacities. Earlier Zoom for Government had been issued a Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) provisional authorization, which has now been withdrawn. The FBI said last week that it saw an increase in “Zoombombing,” the phenomenon of uninvited users infiltrating Zoom video conference sessions, in this case, between Pentagon personnel.

2.5.1. Money laundering and illegal amassment of money by International Maritime Federation 

. At what point of time the so called International Maritime Federation, profit-making commercial company came into being to substitute, supplant and thrust itself as the vanguard of the other maritime entities like RPSL Companies, Maritime Training Institutes and medical centers, most of which were already affiliated with INSA, FOSMA and MASSA. Their capricious induction into the arena smashing the then existing citadel of power is a point of perplexity for all lesser mortals like me. One fails to understand how a body corporate can control the functioning of other body corporates, take money without approval of Central Government in the Ministry of Finance/Ministry of Corporate Affairs using the stamp of assumed patronage of the Directorate General of Shipping with the tacit approval of some vested interests, but without performing any sanctified duties like auditing, quality control, rating or training or anything like that. No Indian company can receive money from any other company without supply of goods or services. If it does, it is serious case of money laundering for both giver and receiver.  The name International Maritime Federation itself is a misnomer. If it were a Federation which are all the federating associations that have democratically chosen this International Maritime Federation as such. If it is International, why Indian Maritime Administration should approve it instead of the IMO? And wonder what terms and conditions, and under which criteria this fourth trade body was approved and recognized. Until recently, under a special dispensation given by the Directorate General of Shipping, for whatever considerations not gone into, the International Maritime Federation also issued Watchkeeping Certificates charging hefty fees, both receipted and un-receipted, both for Nautical and Engineering candidates, which meant they acted as a State Body under Article 12 of the Constitution, without any legal mandate as an instrumentality of the State. All the Art. 12 Instrumentalities who sign any government document, not a toll ticket, but a competency certificate do so under and in the name of President of India under the powers vested by a Statute or conferred under the Constitution itself. Can anyone say under which Article of the Constitution or Statute the International Maritime Federation was created or recognized. Mr. Honorable Minister – please answer this question. The International Maritime Federation charged an enrolment fee of ?100,000 from each of its members and charged annual fees almost equivalent to that. Is it not black money inviting prosecution under Money Laundering Act? How much share they remitted to the Directorate General of Shipping? Did the Directorate General of Shipping ever audit the International Maritime Federation? Any approving body has the statutory right and responsibility to audit the organization approved by it. Did you find how much money went to the coffers of the promoters and directors of the company, in the form of salary, perks and otherwise? Did you ever ask for the Audit report of International Maritime Federation, whom the Directorate General of Shipping approved as the fourth trade body with overlapping areas, job responsibilities, and extra Constitutional jurisdiction and authority? Their fee structure is nowhere published but in the membership application form there is a question. ‘Are you aware of the Fee Structure? – Yes or No. Out of about 700 RPSL Companies the International Maritime Federation has 34 as their members with seven Maritime Training Institutes and three Medical Examiners, which mean they have already pocketed about ?50,00,000 as Enrollment Fees and yearly subscription that went in crores. The genesis of this International Maritime Federation like the company bahadur of the erstwhile East India Company is in serious pangs that cause reasonable trepidations in the mind of ardent maritime followers. Unlike other trade bodies, the International Maritime Federation has veins and vertebrae firmly rooted in Directorate General of Shipping, whom they publicly claim to represent to chastise their non-paying members, those possible mutineers that refuse to toe their lines, like the friends of friends like the Cosa Nostra. Like a Robinhood that ‘protects the poor’ against the ‘repression ‘by the landlords, they claim to protect the ‘victimized’ RPSL Companies at the receiving end of all, like a capo regime that protects the ‘books’ in his domain, the International Maritime Federation is there everywhere, like a worm, virus as the ubiquitous godman, ready with their magic wand available to those who can afford protection money. Thus, Ministry of Shipping and Directorate General of Shipping granted unlawful Approval of International Maritime Federation as an Instrumentality of State under Art. 12 of the Constitution without a law being enacted like LIC Act, 1956, GIC Act, 1972, JNU Act, 1966, UGC Act, 2019, IIT Act, 1961, IMU Act, 2008, so on and so forth. Illegal Declaration of International Maritime Federation as a Competent Authority under the International Maritime Federation  was illegally declared as the Competent Authority for receipt of money that would have come to the account of the Consolidated Fund of the State or the public account of the State or the custody or issue of such money under Article 199 in The Constitution Of India. And hence the unconstitutional diversion of public funds received from various seafarers required to be credited to the Public Fund of India under Art. 265 and 266 of the Constitution to the private coffers of a body corporate namely International Maritime Federation.

3.1.0 Illegal allocation of Government Business in violation of Art. 12 and 299 of the Constitution

3.1.1. Undoubtedly under the powers and authority illegally granted by the MOS and Directorate General of Shipping, for a period over four years, the International Maritime Federation  collected yearly subscription and case to case fees recurring and non-recurring from various RSPL Companies, seafarers of various categories from whom subscriptions, fees and contributions were collected from time to time. If the International Maritime Federation is willing to refund the illegal moneys collected from various entities as above, it is okay, lest these serious frauds committed by International Maritime Federation to collect protection money in the garb of subscriptions from other ‘member companies’ should be investigated to by the Serious Fraud Investigations Agency under ROC including Money Laundering Act..  

3.1.2. The recognition by the Directorate General of Shipping granted to International Maritime Federation is clouded in mystery. The questionable generosity of the Directorate General of Shipping in the facts and circumstances of the case before it, was seemingly to grant equality, secure administrative probity, transparency, objectivity and fairness in the matter of distribution of State largesse and public contracts. And it left all to the whirlwind of bigotry, chauvinism and sycophancy, delegating the State Powers to this Corporate Body, and allowed this Corporate Body to certify the ‘Watchkeeping’ Competence of some categories of seamen against payment of fees that went into the coffers of the International Maritime Federation. Did the Directorate General of Shipping obtain the approval of the Ministry of Finance before foregoing this revenue. No other ministry of the Central Government can forego Central Revenues.  Likewise, the delegation of Administrative Powers needs to be done by the President under the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961. Did the Directorate General of Shipping obtain the Presidential assent? Such decision, to reiterate, has become final and binding on the entire maritime industry and all its entities the lowest of them the seafarers at large, who all paid hefty sums to this newfangled “Federation” to which they owed their being and becoming. Everyone contributes to the coffers of the International Maritime Federation, with not a single scope to know where its payroll goes. As noted hereinabove, the Directorate General of Shipping is in flagrant defiance and disregard to the judicial mandate of the Art. 12 of the Constitution and Rule 21 of the GFRs, 2017, in the delegation of State Powers, without single promulgation. The Directorate General of Shipping did not place any Advertisement to augment the number of trade bodies that should take cudgels for the maritime entities, nor it made out and publish any Magna Carta for observance by such trade bodies. No sir, not for International Maritime Federation. Suddenly like a rishi ashram, the International Maritime Federation came into being with a carte blanche given by the Directorate General of Shipping with unrestricted power to act at their own discretion, unconditional authority over the lesser mortals. The Directorate General of Shipping arrogated to itself, by way of ipse dixit, the power of recognizing one more trade body and act on their own behalf and also on behalf of the State, abusing the powers and privilege granted by the International Maritime Organization under the STCW Convention & Code 2010 Manila Amendments  entitled in law to induct the new dealer of power without any  auction process being initiated, to the same jurisdiction and areas of responsibilities.

Violation of Official Secrets Act, 1923 and IT Act, 2000

Thus, empowered enfant terrible was not stopping here. Recently the International Maritime Federation has been circulating a message claiming to be the champion of the Maritime Industry in the Covids19 lockdown time to bring back the stranded sea farers approximately 19,000 – at whose cost, who paid, under what mandate – to be explained  and the authorized interface of the Hon. Shipping Minister, DG Shipping, MMD officials, IRS Senior Officials and RPSL companies, purporting to host a Webinar on Shipping on 13th June 2020, in which the Hon. Shipping Minister, DG Shipping, MMD officials, IRS Senior Officials and RPSL companies would be participating. The videoconference did take place under the Zoom Platform, (as may be seen in the bottom right logo of Zoom)  in which the all the participants downloaded the Zoom Software, which phished out all the information stored in the computer of the users and populated it online on Beijing based servers.

4.0.0.   Distribution of State’s Largesse

What needs to be emphasized is that the State and/or its agencies/instrumentalities cannot distribute its largesse to any person according to the sweet will and whims of the political entities and/or officers of the State. Every action/decision of the State and/or its agencies/instrumentalities to give largesse or confer benefit must be founded on a sound, transparent, discernible and well-defined policy, which shall be made known to the public by publication in the Official Gazette and other recognized modes of publicity and such policy must be implemented/executed by adopting a non-discriminatory and non-arbitrary method irrespective of the class or category of persons proposed to be benefited by the policy. The distribution of largesse like allotment of land, grant of quota, permit license, approvals and recognitions as State Authorities under Art. 12 by the State and its agencies/instrumentalities should always be done in a fair and equitable manner and the element of favoritism or nepotism shall not influence the exercise of discretion, if any, conferred upon the particular functionary or officer of the State. Thus, the unilateral decision of the Directorate General of Shipping to recognize International Maritime Federation as the arbiter for maritime community and confer on them the  largesse of approval with financial and parasitical powers over various maritime entities is vitiated, reprehensible, capricious, and bad in law.

5.0.0.   Violation of IMO Mandate and Declaration Recognizing the Right to A Flag of States Having No Seacoast

The approval given to the International Maritime Federation by the Directorate General of Shipping is not equivalent to the liquor license being granted to various distillers. It involves the International tenets of laws of SOLAS and STCW’2010. What happened in the case of International Maritime Federation must open the eyes both Government as well as the maritime community at large. How an uncontrolled exercise of executive power to deal with the Conventional Rights and privileges and responsibilities granted by IMO could be indiscriminately bestowed on a commercial body corporate, namely International Maritime Federation  not even a Sec. 25 Company, by which the entire maritime  community's interest was sacrificed in the alter of fostering a Frankenstein namely International Maritime Federation so as to cause huge damage to the faith reposed on a maritime state by the IMO was sacrificed, the fees for various certification that would have accrued to the public exchequer. Conceding that on weighty and valid considerations, there should have been notified norms  against which  the authority must be satisfied that such an offer if given in open would not be outmatched by the more competent non-profit organizations like CMMI or IMEI. In the absence of such satisfaction, acceptance of an offer secretly made and sought to be substantiated as the sole arbiter of maritime entities without the verification of their truth, wherewithal, representative ballots, or referenda which was not undertaken, would certainly amount to arbitrary action in the matter of distribution of State largesse which is impermissible.

6.0.0. High Treason in the prevailing Situation.

Given the laws under which technology companies operate in China, vis-à-vis the present diabolic political situation in which PRC as giant Nation with no qualms to military supremacy over democratic values, no regard to International Boundaries and aggressiveness embodied as proved in the barbaric killing of 20of our high-ranking army men in cold blood using clubs studded with barbed wire, the action of the Honorable Minister of Shipping and Directorate General of Shipping participating in Chinese dragon controlled Zoom Software is not only suicidal compromising the computer system of the Directorate General of Shipping but also compromising the seafarer and ship data a totally authoritarian state that has no value of official secrecy and individual privacy.  Zoom has been forced to share encryption keys with the authorities of the Asian country generated on a server hosted in Chinese territory.

7.1.1. Thus, by yielding yourself to the vulnerabilities of Illegal Recognition of Chinese Authorities for Encryption of the Zoom Data of Indian Users in contravention of Sec. 19 of the Information Technology Act, 2000, the Ministry of Shipping and Directorate General of Shipping have rendered themselves guilty of offenses under the IT Act, 2000. And also, by allowing the Passing on personal data of users including that of the Honorable Minister of Shipping and his personal staff to the Servers in China, an enemy country in violation of Sec. 4 and 43A ibid to the Enemy Nation, namely China, the Directorate General of Shipping and Ministry of Shipping have rendered  themselves culpable of offences under the Act.

8.1.1. Violation of Corporate Law by International Maritime Federation : It has already been explained how the International Maritime Federation has manipulated several government agencies like Ministry of Shipping, DG Shipping, MCA, IT and Defense and several other departments to extort illegal money from several other Indian companies, seafarers and foreign shipping companies for the benefit of its promoters, directors and other office bearers. The above offences have been committed by the offenders named herein. The matter came to light when the Zoom video conference conducted by a dubious Indian Maritime Federation with the Honorable Minister of Shipping as the Chief Guest was investigated into, in the light of governing laws when the following offences came to light. All the repeated warnings contained in my trailing Email dated Wed 10-06-2020 14:48 notwithstanding and despite forwarding specific MHA Advisory against Zoom, a dubious organization like the so called International Maritime Federation has railroaded the  Honorable Minister of Shipping  and the learned Directorate General of Shipping into the perilous quagmire of Zoom, the lethal Chinese Videoconference Software, that has by now possibly downloaded all our Ministry’s data into their Beijing-based servers. The Company needs to be investigated by the Major Fraud Investigation Agency under Companies Act 2013 in the light of the money laundering allegations against the International Maritime Federation 

 .  When country is at Crossroads, in the strait of Ladakh standoff on brutal murder of our Indian soldiers at the hands of Chinese barbarians, the International Maritime Federation is complicating the situation by exposing strategic Indian Maritime Data to the enemy hands thus committing High Treason against the country.

9.0.0. This issues without any prejudice towards any individual, department, ministry or any authority, but only coming out of genuine concern for Sovereignty of our country.

JAI HIND.