Gujarat High Court has quashed the allotment of plots to IAS and IPS officers in the controversial Sumangalam Cooperative Society and ordered 54 senior officials, who had obtained prime land at a concession, to return the land to the state within 60 days. The judgement was given by the high court on a suo motu petittiion based on a letter by one Piyush Soni. In the letter, Soni had alleged that irregularities were committed in the allotment of land to some IAS and IPS officials of the state.
The court also ordered that those who had obtained an additional plot in Gandhinagar would have to pay a penalty of Rs 20,000 and a difference of Rs 2,437 per sq metre with interest.
The judgement, delivered by a division bench comprising Justice B C Patel and Mr Justice R R Tripathi, also ordered the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA) to confiscate the open plots of the society with immediate effect.
The court also directed the government to initiate recovery proceedings in form of an amount of difference of Rs 2,437 per sq meter with interest of 15 per cent per annum in case of plots sold by the original allottees, and on which flats and commercial premises had been constructed.
Bureau Report