Dhananjay Mahapatra | TNN
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday scrapped the Left Front government’s decision to allot Sourav Ganguly a large tract of land in Salt Lake on which he had planned his dream project — an international school with special focus on sports.
A bench of justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly allowed a petition filed by an NGO alleging the tract of land worth 44.9 crore was allotted to the cricketer for just 63 lakh, and that too in extraordinary haste and breach of rules and regulations.
The judges, who admitted they drew a lot of joy from Sourav’s batting and captaincy skills, clarified these personal impressions counted for little when the case in hand projected a wrong act.
Setting aside a Calcutta high court order approving the allotment, the bench said: “It is clear that the government made allotment of the new plot to Sourav Ganguly on terms which were even more generous than the ones suggested by Sourav in his letter dated January 19, 2009. Such action of the government smacks of arbitrariness and falls foul of Article 14 (right to equality).”
In a rap to the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee regime, the bench added: “The government was anxious to oblige the allottee by giving bigger plot that too with no loss of time.”
Justice Ganguly, who wrote the judgment for the bench, faulted the allotment as irregular and hasty. The apex court asked the cricketer to return the land within two weeks.
“Sourav must, within two weeks from date, hand over peaceful and vacant possession of plot no. CA-222 measuring 63.04 cottahs (a little over an acre) in Sector-IV, Salt Lake City (Bidhannagar), Kolkata, to the concerned department of the state government. Within two weeks thereafter, the state government must refund to Sourav, by a cheque, the entire money paid by him for such allotment,” Justice Ganguly said. Norms flouted in giving land to Sourav: SC
New Delhi: Justice A K Ganguly of the Supreme Court said he was aware of Sourav Ganguly’s contribution to Indian cricket and had watched him on TV. “But as a judge, I have different duties to discharge. Here, I must be objective and eschew my likes and dislikes and render justice to a cause which has come before the court,” he said.
The petitioner had pointed out that in response to an advertisement for setting up of a school in Salt Lake City, the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government had received 24 applications. But it only entertained Ganguly's application. The NGO said Ganguly had initially taken possession of the allotted 48 cottahs of land. But later, he wrote to urban development minister Ashok Bhattacharya pleading for additional land citing the ICSE guidelines, which stipulated that no affiliation would be accorded to a school set up on less than 60 kathas.
The Left Front government, throwing rules and regulations to the wind, rushed through the entire exercise and allotted him aplot of 63.04 kathas.
The NGO had also alleged that to overcome the ICSE condition that the school management could not be vested in a single individual, Ganguly floated a trust, much after the allotment of land, for the proposed international school. The trust comprised his mother, father, sister, brother, wife and other relatives.
The bench said, “It is clear that Sourav is selectively seeking compliance of ICSE norms in asking for a bigger plot. In so far as other norms are concerned, they are clearly flouted as seen in the constitution of the trust set up to run the school.”
The petitioner had also challenged the allotment on the ground that there were two other English medium schools operating in plots adjoining to the one given to him. It said the HC had upheld the allotment of land to Ganguly despite the NGO mentioning the violations of allotment and affiliation rules in its petition.
Humanity had organized agitations against “the handing over of a plot that has been designated for a college in Salt Lake’s master plan to an individual.” The former skipper started constructing his integrated school project (primary to the higher secondary levels) on this plot in June last year.
The Calcutta high court had, in April last year, upheld the land allotment observing in its order that there was no arbitrariness in the state government’s action of allotting the land to Sourav.
This order was challenged by Humanity and others following which the apex court had issued notice to the state government on September 16, last year. The apex court also took an undertaking from the cricketer’s counsel on the same day, that no construction activities will be done by him on the disputed land and status quo would be maintained till further order.
Humnaity’s Arunangshu Chakraborty told TOI on Thursday, “The apex court admitted our plea that the land allotted to Sourav earlier was a different land. It was at B F 158 and measured 48 cottahs. There was a clause in the agreement that the government could change the location of the plot. The government used this clause and gave Sourav the 63 cottahs at CA 220.”
Chakraborty added, “Sourav’s counsel pleaded this plot was lieu of the earlier one. But the court pointed out that in his letter addressed to the former urban development minister Bhattacharya, Sourav had said that he would surrender this plot and apply for a bigger of a plot. The government would have made the fresh allotment after registration of the surrendered deal. But nothing of the sort was done. What’s more, Sourav had mentioned that the Council for Indian School Certificate Examination would not give affiliation to his academy unless he had a 60-cottah plot. Our counsel argued that the plot in question was not allotted in the name of the Ganguly Educational Society, but in Sourav’s.”
The original petition read, “The people of Salt Lake in whose interest Salt Lake City was established ... the rule of law which was deliberately throttled by the state authorities by way of distributing plots of land to many having proximity to political leaders without following any policy guidelines.”
(With inputs from Ajanta Chakraborty in Kolkata)
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