VILAS SHANKAR DONODE Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) A complaint by petitioner, a Member of Zilla Parishad, Chandrapur, about illegal felling of trees by respondent No.5, the then Member of Legislative Assembly, was treated as Public Interest Litigation.

(2.) The petitioner himself stopped taking interest. On 9-3-2005, Advocate Shri P.C. Madkholkar was appointed as Amicus Curiae. From time to time, interim orders were passed and information was collected from all relevant sources in form of affidavits/submissions. On 27-4-2005, as the pleadings were complete, this Court directed by consent of parties that the petition may be disposed of finally at the stage of admission. This is how the petition is being disposed of. Therefore, Rule. By consent, rule is made returnable forthwith and is heard.

(3.) The pleadings disclose that there is no dispute about respondent No.5's ownership of land survey No.49 in Khairi Chak situated in a reserved forest. It was alleged that by exerting his influence as Member of Legislative Assembly belonging to the ruling party, respondent No.5 caused illegal cutting of trees, encroached on forest land by causing a road to be laid to approach his land, caused electric line to be laid to his house inside land survey No.49, and a transformer to be installed to feed the said line, thus misusing official machinery by misusing official position. It was also alleged that respondent No.5 purchased a tank and denied to the local cultivators irrigation rights from the said tank. In the guise of developing a tourist spot, he developed his own property. The petitioner had raised a number of issues about the illegal activities of respondent No.5, presumably to elicit a response from the State as to what action the State proposed to take.