The Supreme Court today issued notice to the Centre and Air India on a plea seeking a CBI/SIT probe into alleged irregularities, including purchase of aircraft for the national carrier and giving up of profit making routes to private airlines, when Praful Patel was Civil Aviation Minister. A bench of justices H L Dattu and C K Prasad sought response from the government, the national carrier and CBI on a petition filed by an NGO, Centre for Public Interest Litigation, alleging that various decisions taken during the tenure of Patel were meant to benefit private airlines and caused huge loss to Air India. The NGO, in its petition, has referred to several of Patel's decisions, including the "massive" purchase of 111 aircraft for national airlines costing about Rs 70,000 crores, taking a large number of planes on lease, giving up profit-making routes and timings in favour of private airlines and the merger of Air India and Indian Airlines.

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