JOIN USA Bench of Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly also quashed the notifications issued by the state government for allotting the land worth around Rs 60 crore to the trust in Bhopal for an annual rent of Rs one.
Senior BJP leaders L K Advani and M Venkaiah Naidu among others were said to be the office bearers in the trust.
Land undervalued
The Court directed the state government to take possession of the land and use it as per the development plan. The order was passed on a petition filed by Akhil Bhartiya Upbhokta Congress, a consumers’ society registered in Madhya Pradesh, challenging the government's decision on the ground that the land was given at a throwaway price to the trust in violation of laws.
The society approached the apex court after the Madhya Pradesh High Court had refused to quash the land allotment. “Unfortunately, the Division Bench of the (Madhya Pradesh ) High Court overlooked that the entire process of reservation of land and allotment thereof was fraught with grave illegality and was nothing but a blatant act of favoritism on the part of functionaries of the State and summarily dismissed the writ petition,” the Court said.