Deshmukh with regard to his Latur-based charitable trust when he was Maharashtra Chief Minister have come under the scanner of the Bombay High Court.
The decisions taken by Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh with regard to his Latur-based charitable trust when he was Maharashtra Chief Minister have come under the scanner of the Bombay High Court.
During the hearing of a PIL, which challenges commercial use of a premises alloted to Jeevan Vikas Prathistan Trust at Latur in central Maharashtra, the High Court today noted that then Chief Minister had received two letters that had come from the Trust, headed by him.
Deshmukh is President of the Trust, which got a 5,130 sq feet plot at a nominal rent from Latur Municipal Council for building a school for the deaf and dumb children, in 1981. The land is situated in business hub of the city.
The PIL, filed by Vishal Yadav, an activist, stated that after 2001, a part of the two-storey school building was converted into shopping complex without permission of the Council. In 2006, when Deshmukh was the CM, the commercial use was allowed by Urban Development Department (UDD), also headed by the Chief Minister.
During the hearing today, Justice Girish Godbole pointed out to Advocate General Ravi Kadam that "there are at least two letters of the Trust in the UDD files, which were sent to the Chief Minister, who was President of the Trust."
The Judge did not say what the letters were about.
Kadam, however, said he could not make any submission on the issue unless the petitioner took up the point, or the High Court passed a written order, seeking a clarification.
The Division Bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice Godbole said it will allow the petitioner to amend the PIL and incorporate the point at the next hearing on Thursday.
The Trust's rationale behind renting out a part of the building for shops, and to the local Vikas Co-operative Bank is that it was facing fund crunch. But petitioner's lawyer, Mahesh Jethmalani, had pointed out that Vikas Bank was in fact controlled by Deshmukh's son, Amit.
At the last hearing, Kadam had argued that the Trust was doing a genuine charitable work.
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