Supreme Court issues notice on plea challenging Lavasa land purchase

The Supreme Court issued a notice on a petition against permission granted to Lavasa Corporation Limited to purchase lands for the Lavasa Hill Station project in 2002.

A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna issued a notice on a plea challenging the Bombay High Court’s orders in February this year. The High Court(HC) had refused to interfere with the matter challenging the purchase of lands.

The petitioners contended before the HC that the permission given for the allotment of the lands was illegal as they were politically influenced. The allegations were against Nationalist Congress Party Chief Sharad Pawar, his daughter and Member of Parliament Supriya Sule, and then the Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar for influencing the officials of the State government and Maharashtra Krishna Valley Development Corporation to take decisions prejudicial to the public interest, the petition stated.

The High Court had noted that since the allegations against the politicians were not countered by them it would appear to be true.

However, the HC Bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice GS Kulkarni refused to interfere in the matter saying that the petitioner had delayed in approaching the court and the farmers must have lost their interests in the disputed lands.

The petitioners then moved the apex court saying that the High Court had dismissed their petition on a technicality of delay and had not gone into the merits of the case.

Even though the High Court had recognized the abuse of power, it had ‘failed to pierce the veil and the functional immunity accorded to the holders of public offices to hold them accountable and has failed to attribute even an iota of responsibility for their continuous grave wrongs,’ the petition before the Supreme Court stated.

For short-term relief, the petitioners have sought a stay on the construction works in the 18 villages of Lavasa.

It is to be noted that the lenders for Lavasa Corporation had started an insolvency process against the company earlier. A Mumbai-based firm Darwin Platform Infrastructure Limited had won the ₹1864 crore bid to acquire Lavasa Corporation through the insolvency process. The bid was approved by the lenders of the corporation but the petitioners have sought a direction to the company law tribunal to not approve the bid until the current petition is decided.