ANIRUDHHSINH VANRAJSINH JADEJA Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Special Civil Application is filed by the petitioners under Article 226 of the Constitution of India by seeking the prayers, relevant of which reads as under:

(2.) There are 10 petitioners in the present petition, wherein petitioner nos. 1 to 7 claim to be individual residents of the plots situated in Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) Estate at Naroda. Petitioner no. 8 is a trust which runs a school which is stated to be adjacent to plot no. 313 and imparts education to approximately 1300 students from Jr.KG to Standard X. Petitioner no. 9 is Naroda Utilities Services (hereafter to be referred to as "NUS"), which is a company incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956. It is the case of the petitioner that NUS undertakes the work of development and maintenance of infrastructure for Naroda Industrial Estate like plantation of trees, maintenance of green space, storm water drainage, roads, cleanliness etc. Petitioner no. 10 is an association of the Industries established at GIDC Estate at Naroda.

(3.) Essentially, the grievance of the petitioners in this petition is that, respondent no.2 -Corporation is trying to sell certain left -over plots in the GIDC Estate, which were already left in the Estate for the purpose of greenery and trees. Naroda Industrial Estate is spread over an area of 357 hectares, that is, 35,70,000 sq.mts. The same was acquired by the GIDC in the early 1960s and was allotted to various industrial units initially by invitation and later on by inviting bids through public auction. The said industrial estate is a saturated estate with fully developed infrastructure. Plots were allotted initially by GIDC on lease of 99 years, but the policy of the GIDC permits conversion of leasehold rights to freehold rights again on payment of premium/fees to GIDC. Thus, many industrial units have taken the benefit of such policy of the GIDC and therefore, such plots in the Industrial Estate are in great demand, thus, the GIDC continues to earn on account of fees charged by it on transfer of leasehold rights and on conversion of leasehold rights to freehold rights.