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Land acquisition case: SC raps state, Cidco

The court was puzzled at the prolonged delay after which Dosu Aardeshir Bhiwandiwala laid claim to huge plot of land as a trustee

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The Supreme Court on Friday passed severe strictures against the Maharashtra government and its agencies, like the City and Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco), as it quashed the acquisition notifications for vast land that the government had passed for the New Bombay Project in Raigad 37 years ago.

The court was puzzled at the prolonged delay after which Dosu Aardeshir Bhiwandiwala laid claim to huge plot of land as a trustee of the Sir Khan Bahadur Hormasji Bhiwandiwala Trust.

Bhiwandiwala did not have requisite documents justifying the claim, yet the Bombay High Court (HC) admitted his writ petition and, on the oral submission made by the state’s counsel, granted him the relief. Neither CIDCO nor the government filed any affidavit to counter Bhiwandiwala’s claim on the land. But a response filed before the apex court challenged every contention made by Bhiwandiwala.

Returning the matter to the HC for fresh consideration, a bench of Justices SH Kapadia and B Sudershan Reddy also criticised the HC for giving the go-by to the principles of dispensation of writ petitions relating to public policy.

“We are constrained to confess the case has left us perplexed,” the court observed, while terming the stance taken by the state government and the Raigad district collector as “stranger than fiction”. “It is difficult to discern as to why they remained silent spectators without effectively participating in the proceedings before the Court,” the bench added.

Judges said it was the “constitutional obligation” and duty of the state to place “true and relevant facts by filing proper affidavits enabling the court to discharge its constitutional duties”.
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