The Supreme Court on Thursday pulled up Gujarat Revenue Minister and a trusted aide of Narendra Modi, Anandiben Patel for failing to respect the mandate of legislature by illegally allowing re-sale of agricultural land from one company to another.
A bench of Justices H L Gokhale and J Chelameswar also noted that she overruled objections of secretaries on the land deal and gave green signal to it without assigning any reason. “She has ignored that howsoever high you may be, the law is above you,” the bench remarked, noting that the minister had to take cognizance of apprehensions of farmers as well as the statutory provisions brought to her notice.
The controversy surrounds 40 acre agricultural land in Kutch district which were purchased by one Indigold Refinery Limited of Mumbai, for industrial purpose but it failed to set up the project within the stipulated three-year period.
The company then sold the land to Alumina Refinery, which was allowed by the minister despite objections.
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