Nagpur: The Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court has quashed a 2017 GR of the Urban Development Department (UDD) related to allotment of Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT) land in Manewada to Shri Santaji Jagnade Maharaj Smarak Samiti and ordered the government to allot the plot to Malvi Suvarnakar Sanstha.
The Court observed in the judgment that the act of the Government and NIT is against the constitutional mandate under Article 14 of the Constitution of India. The Division bench of Justice A S Chandurkar and Justice Anil Pansare stated in the order that the Plot No.8, Khasra No.538, Manewada in (Nagpur) is one of the plots in the layout belonging to the Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT).
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“The plot has been allotted to the Shri Santaji Jagnade Maharaj Smarak Samiti only on the basis of a request made in the form of letter without assigning any cogent reason and without disclosing the special circumstance or special nature of the case for allotment of said plot, without following the procedure prescribed under Rule 5(2) of the Land Disposal Rules. Such exercise of allotment of land has deprived similarly placed persons from even tendering their bid to acquire the plot,” the court said, observing that the act of the State Government and NIT is, therefore, against the constitutional mandate under Article 14 of the Constitution of India.
Malvi Suvarnakar Sanstha, an applicant in the writ application made representations demanding the aforesaid land with a specific contention that the Plot Nos. 6 and 7 therein were already allotted to the Teli Samaj Sabha and that allotting all three plots to the said community would create monopoly. Despite such demand, the State Government vide impugned GR dated June 9, 2017 allotted Plot No.8 to the Shri Santaji Jagnade Maharaj Smarak Samiti, a society belonging to Teli community for management, maintenance and repair of the Community Hall (Samaj Bhavan) to be constructed thereon.
The counsel of the petition relied upon the judgment of the Coordinate Bench of this Court in the case of “Transport Nagar Free Zone Co-operative Society Limited v/s Nagpur Improvement Trust & another, 2005(3) Bom.C.R. 485.” The Division bench also held that the State cannot exclude the other eligible persons, bodies, organisations or institutions from lodging competing claims by entertaining applications made by individuals, organisations, institutions for allotment of land. The exception by way of relaxation is permissible only under exceptional circumstances for which the State Government has to record reasons in writing and make out the special nature of the case for relaxing the Rules. The Court in judgment order partly allowed the writ petition and quashed and set aside the Government Resolution date June 9, 2017.
Senior counsel Anand Parchure appeared for the petitioner, AGP A S Fulzele represented the State Government while Adv Girish Kunte represented the NIT.
