BHRASTACHAR NIRMOOLAN SANGATHANA Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This petition is filed in public interest challenging allotment of various plots of land by Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) in favour of Respondent Nos. 4 to 25.

(2.) Petitioner claims to be a social organization and a public trust set up with the objective of eradicating corruption. Petitioner No. 2 is the President of Petitioner No.1. It is pleaded that Petitioner No. 2 came across a press report in newspaper where several plots of land were alloted by Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation to various persons closely related to the Ministers and Members of Legislative Assembly. Petitioner alleges that public land, intended for industrial development in the State, has been allotted at throwaway prices and on concessional rates, contrary to the provisions of Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation Act, 1961 (MIDC Act). Petitioner alleges that such allotment is made without conduct of tender process. Accordingly, the Petitioner has filed the present petition questioning the allotment of plots by MIDC to Respondent Nos. 4 to 25.

(3.) Dr. Warunjikar, the learned counsel appearing for the Petitioner would submit that the MIDC has made allotment of plots to political persons without conducting public auction. That public largesse cannot be distributed without grant of opportunity to all eligible persons to participate in the bid process. That even if MIDC's power of making allotment merely on the application is momentarily recognized, it was incumbent upon MIDC to issue at least public notice so that interested educational institutions which are in real need of land could apply for allotment, thereby creating a level playing field among similarly situated persons/entities. That the allotment in the present case is done by entertaining individual applications made by politicians and their appreciated persons. That such a course of action has resulted in a situation where entities having no educational activities in the concerned area are favored by allotting plots without any advertisement. He would rely upon judgments of the Apex Court in Akhil Bhartiya Upbhokta Congress Versus. State of Madhya Pradesh and Others, (2011) 5 SCC 29. City Industrial Development Corporation through its Managing Director Versus. Platinum Entertainment and Others, (2015) 1 SCC 558 and Indian Oil Corporation Limited and Others Versus. Shashi Prabha Shukla and Another, (2018) 12 SCC 85 in support of his contention that government land cannot be allotted without implementing tender process.