SC slaps notice on Jyoti Basu for 'misuse of discretionary
The Times of India Service
The Times of India
May 11, 1999
Title: SC slaps notice on Jyoti Basu for 'misuse of discretionary
powers'
Author: The Times of India Service
Publication: The Times of India
Date: May 11, 1999
West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu and five other state
functionaries are in the thick of a legal battle over misuse of
discretionary powers in the allotment of prestigious Salt Lake City
residential plots to VIPS.
On an appeal by Trinamul Congress councillor Tarak Singh and a public
interest petition filed by retired civil servant Dipak Kumar Ghosh,
the supreme court on Monday issued notices to Mr Basu, state urban
development minister Ashok Bhattacharya, former urban development
ministers Budhadev Bhattacharya, Ashim Dasgupta, Prasanta Sur and the
chairman of the Salt Lake municipality.
The petitioners have sought exemplary damages from them for alleged
misuse of the discretionary quota by the chief minister in the
allotments of 276 residential blocks in the Salt Lake City area of
Calcutta.
A bench comprising Justice S.P Bharucha and Justice M. Srinivasan
passed the order after hearing the petitioners' counsel Shanti
Bhushan, Ms Kamini Jaiswal and Prashant Bhushan.
Counsel said the chief minister had violated all norms in allotting
plots to some VIPS.
They submitted that the Calcutta high court had also observed that the
chief minister did not follow any norm or guidelines while allotting
plots from his discretionary quota.
Among the beneficiaries of discretionary allotment were close
relatives, friends and personal staff of Mr Basu, ministers,
parliamentarians, legislators, judges, bureaucrats and the husband of
Surabhi Banerjee, writer of the ,,only authorised biography" of Mr
Basu.
Earlier on February 5, the Calcutta high court while dismissing the
Trinamool Congress councillor's petition had held that "such
allotments are without any reason".
In 1987, the high court had restrained the West Bengal government from
making any allotment in the Salt Lake area without the leave of the
court.
However, the high court later clarified that it would not stop the
chief minister from making land allotments from his discretionary
quota.
Mr Ghosh's PIL has sought a declaration that the allotment of land by
Mr Basu, being a public servant, was oppressive, arbitrary,
unconstitutional and unexceptional and as such exemplary damages
should be imposed on him.
The petitioners have sought appointment of a committee under direct
supervision of the apex court to scrutinise all cases of discretionary
allotments after due notice to the allottees and on the basis of the
report of the committee, the court should take decision on the
validity of the allotments.
They further requested the court to direct an independent agency to
investigate into the charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act
and Indian Penal Code against the chief minister and others for
allotting plots for extraneous considerations.
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