The Supreme Court issued notice on Monday on a petition challenging the Bombay High Court verdict, which quashed petitions challenging the permission granted to Lavasa Corporation Limited to purchase lands for Lavasa Hill Station project.
Earlier in February this year, an Apex Court Bench comprising Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice A.S. Bopanna, had issued notice in the matter.
The petition, filed by Nanasaheb Vasantrao Jadhav and others before the Bombay High Court, had contended that the permission given to Lavasa Corporation for developing the project was totally illegal and void ab initio because of undue political favouritism.
The plea alleged that due to the influence of Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, Member of Parliament Supriya Sule and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, officials of the state government and Maharashtra Krishan Valley Development Corporation had taken decisions against the law, against public interest.
The High Court Bench comprising Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice G.S. Kulkarni had observed that the allegations levelled in the petition against Sharad Pawar and Supriya Sule have not been rebutted by them and would, therefore, have to be assumed as correct.
However, it decided not to interfere with the writ petition, observing that one of the objections to the plea was the delay in approaching the Court. It said the harm caused by interference at this stage would “far out-weigh the benefit that could, if at all, accrue to the farmers on whose behalf the petition has been instituted”.
The Bench further said that by now, the farmers would have lost rights in respect of their properties and developed third party interests. It added that the lands may not be conducive for farming.
In their SLP before the top court, the petitioners have contended that the affected farmers have been subjected to grave continuous injustice against them ever since the lands of 18 villages notified as hill stations were sold at paltry sums to the Corporation in 2002.
It was also argued that the Lavasa Lake City project is being developed in complete contravention of the Maharashtra Regional Town Planning Act, 1966 and the Maharasthra Krishan Valley Development Corporation Act, 1996.
Further, it was claimed that the High Court dismissed the plea on hyper-technical grounds of gross delay. Even though the High Court acknowledged that the systematic abuse of power amounted to breach of the Public Trust Doctrine, it has “miserably 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 plea before the Supreme Court states.
As interim relief, the petitioner sought a stay on the construction in the 18 villages. It was noted that the Lavasa Corporation Limited had filed insolvency proceedings before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). The petitioner thus sought a direction to the NCLT to not proceed further until the disposal of the present petition, so that no third party rights are created.