Allahabad: Uttar Pradesh government on Monday requested the Allahabad High Court to review its recent judgement ordering removal of Chairman and CEO of Noida, who are facing probe for alleged graft.
In its review petition, the state government urged the court to "reconsider" the November 8 order directing that Rakesh Bahadur and Sanjeev Saran, who are respectively holding the posts of Chairman and CEO of Noida, be removed forthwith and not posted "anywhere in western UP" as their presence in the region could affect the inquiry pending against them.
It was contended by the state government that "some relevant and important facts, relevant to the case, were missing in the judgement and hence it requires to be reviewed or reconsidered by the Bench".
A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Amitava Lala and Justice Pradeep Kumar Singh Baghel, which had passed the order, sought a counter-affidavit on the state`s review petition from Madhav Samaj Nirman Samiti, a social organisation which had challenged the appointment of the two IAS officers to their respective posts.
The court had passed the earlier order on a Public Interest Litigation filed by the social outfit.
The court, however, did not specify a next date for hearing on the matter.
The review petition is now likely to be placed before a freshly-constituted bench in the wake of Justice Lala`s retirement today.
In the November 08 order, the court had also ordered a CBI inquiry into all allegations of irregularities in land allotments in Noida since 2001, charges of financial wrongdoing against the two officers and their appointment to the key posts despite inquiry being pending against them.
Bahadur and Saran had been holding the same respective posts during 2005-07, when Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav was the Chief Minister of UP. They were accused of facilitating the sale of prime land to hoteliers at throwaway prices, causing a loss of thousands of crores to the state exchequer.
A case was registered against the two IAS officers by the subsequent Mayawati regime in the state and they were kept under suspension for close to three years.
However, shortly after the SP returned to power this year and the party supremo`s son Akhilesh Yadav became the Chief Minister, both the officers were appointed to the same posts despite the inquiry pending against them.
PTI
