The Indore bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court has given a reprieve to chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in the land allotment case involving Baba Ramdev at Pithampur industrial area. The court directed the petitioner Tapan Bhattacharya to remove Chouhan's name from the respondents.
Social worker and child right activist Bhattacharya had filed a PIL before the Indore bench alleging irregularities in the allotment of 40 acres of land to Ramdev's Patanjali Ayurveda Company. He had pleaded to stop the construction of a boundary wall in the land allotted to Ramdev in August 2016.
The chief minister had personally invited Ramdev to invest in the state. The petitioner claimed that Ramdev got land on a concessional price while other industrialists are paying higher rates. Patanjali Ayurveda plans to invest around Rs 600 crore in the state.
Last Thursday, during a hearing of the case, the division bench comprising Justice S.C. Sharma and Justice R.K. Dubey directed Bhattacharya to remove the name of the chief minister. The reply submitted by the state government said the land was allotted under the provisions of the new industrial policy. The reply on record mentioned that the cabinet committee at the state level has powers to allot land to a company at a subsidised rate if it is ready to make an investment above Rs 25 crore.
The state government sought for more time to reply to the petitioner in the case where two interim applications have also been moved. Advocates of Trade and Investment Facilitation Corporation and additional advocate general Purushendra Kaurav appeared for the state government.
