NANASAHEB VASANTRAO JADHAV Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner seeks a direction to the respondent-authorities for registration of a criminal case and investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (in short, "CBI") against certain individuals.

(2.) The petitioner states that he filed Public Interest Litigation (St) No. 8716 of 2011 (in short, "PIL-I") and challenged the amendments made in the Bombay Tenancy and Agricultural Lands (Amendment) Act, 2005 (in short, "BTAL Act"). The amendments made in the BTAL Act were not in public interest and affected the valuable rights of the farmers. However, PIL-I was not placed before the Court for hearing because the learned counsel for the petitioner did not remove the objections. He filed another PIL vide Public Interest Litigation No. 109 of 2013 (in short, "PIL-II") in which he filed an application seeking permission to amend the petition. This Court by an order dtd. 13/7/2018 granted permission to the petitioner to withdraw the PIL-II with liberty to file a fresh petition. The petitioner further states that on receiving certain information, he realized that the Lavasa Hill Station Project (in short, "Project") was launched with illegal permissions granted by the government, its officers and Ministers of the Government of Maharashtra. According to the petitioner, several powerful politicians including a former Union Minister for Agriculture, Member of Parliament, Managing Director of the Hindustan Construction Company, etc. were involved in the Project.

(3.) The petitioner who is an agriculturist by occupation and an advocate by profession approached this Court in Public Interest Litigation No. 146 of 2018 (in short, "PIL-III") seeking intervention of this Court with the Special permission dtd. 5/12/2002 and the Corrigendum dtd. 11/12/2002 issued by the Development Commissioner (Industries) in favor of the Lake City Corporation Limited. PIL-III was filed with manifold prayers and this Court made certain observations regarding the duty of the government as repository of public trust. This Court criticized the Project and the Maharashtra Krishna Valley Development Corporation (in short, "MKVDC") which failed to protect the natural resources for the enjoyment of general public. However, the PIL-III was dismissed on 26/2/2022 with the following observations: -