The Supreme Court on Thursday questioned the way a Salt Lake plot had been allotted to Sourav Ganguly to set up a school and slammed the government for sending its officials to the cricketer’s house to facilitate paperwork for the transfer of the land.
The bench of Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice Asok Kumar Ganguly observed that replacing a plot handed over to a party with a bigger one was a “substantial change”, implying that the government should not have allotted a larger plot to Sourav without publishing an advertisement seeking applications from all interested parties.
Sourav had initially been allotted a 48-cottah plot in the township’s BF block to set up an ICSE school. But since the rules of the Delhi-based council mandated a minimum of 60 cottahs for affiliation, the cricketer pleaded with state urban development minister Asok Bhattacharya to hand him a 62-acre plot in CA block. The government granted the plea without publishing any advertisement for CA 222.
The CA Block Citizens’ Association, the NGO Humanity and Arunangshu Chakraborty, a resident of Salt Lake, had moved the high court against the move, but the court ruled: “…we are of the view that the allotment… was not vitiated by illegality, arbitrariness or mala fide merely because an advertisement was not placed….”
The petitioners then moved an appeal in the apex court which came up for hearing on Thursday.
The bench also criticised the government for sending its officers to Sourav’s house to do paperwork related to the allotment and registration of the plot.
“We live in times when governments go to the residences of celebrities and VIPs. Otherwise the government won’t run. Who will pay for their election?” Justice Singhvi observed in a sarcastic tone.
Mitra claimed: “But this should not vitiate the land allotment. The ICSE can raise objections against this later.” Justice Ganguly then observed: “Then your land allotment is infructuous”. The hearing will continue on Friday.
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