Allotment of Land: CMs discretionary housing quota held illegal: Bombay High Court: Rejecting the claims by the petitioners for allotment of flats, a bench comprising of A.S. Oka and M. S. Sonak, JJ ruled that the State Government policies for allotment of flats under Chief Ministers discretionary quota are ‘illegal, irrational and unfair’. In the present case, a bunch of petitions had been filed by former employees of the state government, who claimed that they were eligible for allotment of a flat under the CM’s quota since 1989, but their names remained on the waiting list of allottees for decades. As many as 12 petitions were filed separately which were later clubbed by the Court to pass a common order. The Counsel for the petitioners contended that even when the scheme was meant for the general public, it was not known to many since it was not advertised. The High Court accepted the argument and stated that in several Supreme Court orders it is held that distribution of state largesse should be done equally and reasonably. It should not be arbitrary; applications should be invited from the public, and advertisements should be given so as to offer an equal opportunity to avail the benefit of the same. The Court restrained the state government from making any further allotments of the 2 per cent of the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority flats and 5 per cent flats on private land under the purview of Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulations) Act, 1976 under the chief minister’s quota. The Court dismissed the contentions of the petitioners stating that none of the petitioners have made out a case that the public advertisements were published on the basis of which they made applications for allotment of flats and some of them had even come out with the case that their applications were recommended by the politicians, hence, no relief was granted to the petitioners on the basis of the letters of allotment issued to them. [Chandrabhan Sukhadeo Sangle vs. Urban Development Department, Writ Petition No. 882 of 2011, decided on March 20, 2014]
Posted on: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 14:43:32 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015