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2011 (4) TMI 1291

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..... ghvi Asok Kumar Ganguly, JJ. JUDGMENT G.S. Singhvi, J. 1. Leave granted. 2. Whether the decision of the Government of Madhya Pradesh to allot 20 acres land comprised in Khasra Nos. 82/1 and 83 of village Bawadiya Kalan, Tehsil Huzur, District Bhopal to late Shri Kushabhau Thakre Memorial Trust (for short, the Memorial Trust )/Shri Kushabhau Thakre Training Institute (respondent No. 5) without any advertisement and without inviting other similarly situated organisations/institutions to participate in the process of allotment is contrary to Article 14 of the Constitution and the provisions of the Madhya Pradesh Nagar Tatha Gram Nivesh Adhiniyam, 1973 (for short, the Act ) and whether modification of the Bhopal Development Plan and change of land use is ultra vires the mandate of Section 23A of the Act are the questions which arise for consideration in this appeal filed against the order of the Madhya Pradesh High Court dismissing the Writ Petition filed by the appellant. 3. That facts necessary for deciding the aforementioned questions have been culled out from the pleadings of the parties and the records produced by the learned counsel for the State. The same .....

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..... st, Bhopal (for short, `the Registrar') under the Madhya Pradesh Public Trusts Act, 1951 (for short `the 1951 Act') for registration of a trust in the name of respondent No. 5 by describing himself and S/Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu, Lal Krishna Advani, Balwant P. Apte and Sanjay Joshi as Trustees. In the application, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu was shown as the first President of the trust and Shri Kailash Joshi as its Secretary and Managing Trustee. (vi) After complying with the procedure prescribed under the 1951 Act, the Registrar passed order dated 6.10.2004 for registration of the trust. The certificate of registration was issued on 24.12.2004. (vii) In the meanwhile, Shri Kailash Joshi sent letter dated 11.8.2004 to the Principal Secretary, Housing by describing himself as Managing Trustee of respondent No.5 and submitted fresh proposal for reservation of 30 acres land out of Khasra Nos.82/1 and 83 of village Bawadiya Kalan in favour of respondent No.5. (viii) By letter dated 20.9.2004, respondent No. 3 informed the Secretary, Housing and Environment Department (respondent No.2) that 4665 acres land of villages Bawadiya Kalan and Salaiya had already been notified in Ma .....

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..... ent No.4 vide his letter dated 8.10.2004 submitted proposal for allotment of 30 acres land to the Memorial Trust. In paragraph 6 of his letter, respondent No.4 clearly indicated that the land falls within the limits of Bhopal Municipal Corporation and, as such, in terms of Chapter IV-1 of the Madhya Pradesh Revenue Book Circular (for short, the RBC ) , the same should not be allotted at a price less than the minimum price. He also indicated that price of the land would be ₹ 7,84,8000/-, of which 10 per cent should be deposited as a condition for allotment. After 2= months, respondent No. 4 sent letter dated 23.12.2004 to the Additional Secretary, Revenue Department and informed him that the Memorial Trust has not deposited 10 per cent of the premium. (xiii) On coming to know the aforesaid communications, Shri Kailash Joshi sent letters dated 19.2.20005 and 20.3.2005 to respondent No. 4 and Secretary, Revenue Department respectively and assured that the premium will be deposited immediately after the allotment of land. (xiv) After about 8 months of the submission of proposal for allotment of 30 acres land to the Memorial Trust, Shri Kailash Joshi sent letter dated 16.5. .....

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..... ntation made by Shri Kailash Joshi, orders/communications dated 25.9.2004, 27.1.2006 and 19.6.2006 were amended and the name of respondent No. 5 was inserted in place of the Memorial Trust. Thereafter, lease agreement dated 6.1.2007 was executed between the State Government and Secretary of respondent No.5 in respect of 20 acres land for a period ending on 05.12.2037 at a premium of ₹ 25,00,000/- and an yearly rent of Re.1. (xviii) Since the use of land comprised in Khasra Nos. 82/1 and 83 of village Bawadiya Kala was shown in the Bhopal Development Plan as public and semi-public (health) and the same could not have been utilized for the purpose of respondent No. 5, the State Government issued notification dated 6.6.2008 under Section 23-A(1)(a) of the Act proposing change of land use in respect of 19.75 acres land of Khasra No.82/1(part) of Village Bawadiya Kalan from public and semi-public (health) to public and semi public and invited objections/suggestions. The notification was published in the Official Gazette and two newspapers, namely, Dainik Bhaskar and Sandhya Prakash dated 9th and 10th June, 2008. Five persons representing Bawadiya Uthaan Samiti, Sangwari - .....

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..... rent of Re. 1/-. Thereupon, Shri Anil Srivastava, Principal Secretary, Revenue Department, Government of Madhya Pradesh filed an affidavit along with list of 69 institutions and organizations to whom land was allotted at an annual rent of Re. 1 only without charging any premium. After the arguments were concluded, another affidavit of Shri Umashankar Bhargav was filed on 18.1.2011. He tendered apology for making a wrong statement in paragraph 13 of affidavit dated 10.1.2011 and filed copies of the following documents: i) Application dated 18.09.2007 made by Shri Kailash Joshi for erection of building in Khasra No. 82/1, Bawadiya Kalan; ii) Letter dated 04.02.2008 sent by respondent No.3 to the Principal Secretary, Housing, proposing change of land use of Khasra No.82/1 (part) from public and semi public (health) and road to public and semi public and road; iii) Paper publications dated 09.06.2008 and 10.06.2008; iv) Notice dated 04.08.2008 issued to the objectors; v) Note-sheets dated 01.09.2009 and 02.09.2009 of the Housing and Environment Department; vi) Letter dated 13.09.2006 sent by respondent No.4 to the Principal Secretary, Housing, letter dated 06.10.2 .....

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..... plete inasmuch as the draft modified plan was not published so as to enable the members of public to effectively oppose the proposed modification of the development plan. In the end, Shri Ramchandran argued that the decision of the State Government to indirectly reserve the land in favour of Respondent No.5 with retrospective effect is liable to be quashed because as on the date of reservation the said respondent had not been registered as a trust. 7. Shri Ravi Shanker Prasad, learned senior counsel appearing for the State of Madhya Pradesh and other official respondents, challenged the locus standi of the appellant on the premise that the averments contained in the writ petition were vague to the core and the High Court rightly refused to entertain the same as a petition filed in public interest. Learned senior counsel then referred to the provisions of the Act, the Madhya Pradesh Government Rules of Business, the RBC and argued that the impugned allotment cannot be termed as arbitrary or vitiated due to violation of Article 14 because the State Government has a long standing policy of allotting land to social, cultural, religious, educational and other similar organizations/in .....

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..... y constitutional or legal principle warranting interference by the Court. Shri Ranjit Kumar relied upon Sections 3,5 and 6 of the Indian Trusts Act, 1882 and Sections 2,4,5,6,8,11,32 and 33 of the 1951 Act and argued that intention to create trust was sufficient to enable Shri Kailash Joshi to make applications for reservation and allotment of land in the name of the institute and, in any case, the appellant cannot take advantage of non-registration of the trust up to 6.10.2004 because on the date of actual allotment i.e. 27.01.2006 the trust stood registered. Learned senior counsel also emphasized that once the trust was registered, the factum of registration will relate back to the date of application i.e. 31.07.2004, which was prior to the reservation of land by the State Government. In the end, Shri Ranjit Kumar submitted that the Court may not nullify the impugned allotment at the instance of the appellant because it did not question hundreds of similar allotments made in favour of other organizations/institutions. Learned senior counsel also relied upon the judgment of this Court in Harsh Dhingra v. State of Haryana (2001) 9 SCC 550 and argued that the impugned allotment may .....

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..... nual Development plan of the district prepared under the Madhya Pradesh Zila Yojana Samiti Adhiniyam, 1995 in respect of the planning area and shall broadly indicate the land use proposed in the planning area; allocate broadly areas or zones of land, keeping in view the regulations of natural hazard prone areas, for residential, industrial, commercial or agricultural purposes; open spaces, parks and gardens, green-belts, zoological gardens and playgrounds; public institutions and offices and such special purposes as the Director may consider proper. Other factors enumerated in clauses (c) to (j) are also required to be taken into consideration while preparing a development plan. Section 17-A(1) mandates the constitution of a Committee consisting of various persons specified in clauses (a) to (i) thereof. The role of the Committee is to hear the objections received after publication of the draft development plan under Section 18 and suggest modifications or alterations, if any. Section 18 provides for publication of the draft development plan for inviting objections and suggestions from public. The objections and suggestions, if any, received are required to be placed before the Com .....

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..... lanning area shall vest in the Director from the date appointed by the State Government by notification. Sub-section (3) empowers the State Government to make rules to regulate control of development and use of land in planning area. Section 25(1) lays down that after coming into force of the development plan, the use and development of land shall be in accordance with the development plan. Section 26 lays down that after coming into operation of the development plan, no person shall change the use of any land or carry out any development without written permission of the Director. Proviso to this section contains some exceptions in which works can be carried out without prior permission of the Director. Chapter VII (Sections 38 to 63A) provides for establishment of Town and Country Development Authority and its status as a body corporate, constitution of the Authority, tenure and remuneration etc. of Chairman and Vice Chairman, appointment of Chief Executive Officer and other officers and servants. Section 49 specifies the factors which may be included in a town development scheme. Section 50 regulates preparation of a town development scheme and publication thereof in the Gazette .....

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..... rpose; (ii) open spaces, parks and gardens, green-belts, zoological gardens and playgrounds; (iii) public institutions and offices; (iv) such special purposes as the Director may deem fit; 23-A. Modification of Development Plan or zoning Plan by State Government in certain circumstances. - (1)(a) The State Government may, on its own motion or on the request of a Town and Country Development Authority, make modification in the development plan or the zoning plan for any proposed project of the Government of India or the State Government and its enterprises or for any proposed project related to development of the State or for implementing a scheme of a Town and Country Development Authority and the modification so made in the development plan or zoning plan shall be an integral part of the revised development plan or zoning plan. (b) The State Government may, on an application from any person or an association of persons for modification of development plan or zoning plan for the purpose of undertaking an activity or scheme which is considered by the State Government or the Director, on the advice of the Committee constituted by the State Government for this purpo .....

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..... y the Union or State Government or an authority established under this Act or by a local authority having jurisdiction, provided that such maintenance or improvement does not change the road alignment contrary to the provisions of the development plan; (c)for the purpose of inspecting, repairing or renewing any drains, sewers, mains, pipes, cables, telephone or other apparatus including the breaking open of any street or other land for that purpose; (d) for the excavation or soil-shaping in the interest of agriculture; (e) for restoration of land to its normal use where land has been used temporarily for any other purposes; (f) for use, for any purpose incidental to the use of building for human habitation, or any other building or land attached to such building; (g) for the construction of a road intended to give access to land solely for agricultural purposes: [Provided further that in a planning area to which rules made under sub-section (3) of Section 24 are made applicable, such permission may be given by such authority as may be provided in the said rules.] 58. Disposal of land, buildings and other development works.- Subject to such rules as may be made .....

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..... vernment or Government of India or by vesting in any local authority. In terms of paragraph 13(1), permanent lease can be granted either by auction or without auction. Paragraph 13(2) enumerates the contingencies in which permanent lease cannot be granted by auction. These include when the land in question is used for religious, educational, co-operative, public or social purposes. Paragraph 14 provides for reservation of the plots which are sold with the approval of the State Government on the conditions separately decided for each such plot. Paragraph 17 specifies the authorities who are competent to pass orders in respect of Nazul land. Under this paragraph, the power to grant lease of Nazul land for educational institutions, playgrounds, hospitals and other public purposes on concessional rate as also the power to grant lease of Nazul land for 30 years or less with a right of renewal vests with the State Government, if the mode of disposal is otherwise than auction. The residuary power also vests with the State Government. Paragraph 18 lays down that a petition can be submitted to the higher authority against any order which may be passed by an officer subordinate to the State .....

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..... te proposed to be allotted. Clause 1(a) and (b) of this paragraph prescribes the premium required to be paid by different types of bodies and institutions. Clause 3 prescribes the condition relating to construction of the building and Clause 5 provides for resumption of land in certain eventualities. By Circular No.6/16/91/Sat/SA/2B, the Government prescribed the revised rates for allotment of Nazul land to caste and non-caste based social, religious and philanthropic organizations, the organizations engaged in welfare of women, educational and cultural organizations, public hospitals, co-operative societies, agriculture market committee, municipal corporation etc. By Circular No. F.6-173/96/Sat/SA/2B/Nazul dated 31.5.1996, the State Government prescribed the premium and rent to be charged for allotment of land to caste based and social institutions. By Circular No. F No. 6- 140/07/SAT/Nazul dated 31.8.2007, the State Government decided to allot land without charging any premium at an annual rent of Re. 1/- for housing schemes meant for slum dwellers. 14. We shall now consider whether the State Government could allot 20 acres of land to respondent No.5 without issuing an adverti .....

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..... nd making them real and meaningful. Part IV contains `Directive Principles of State Policy' which are fundamental in the governance of the country and it is the duty of the State to apply these principles in making laws. Article 39 specifies certain principles of policy which are required to be followed by the State. Clause (b) thereof provides that the State shall, in particular, direct its policy towards securing that the ownership and control of the material resources of the community are so distributed as best to sub-serve the common good. Parliament and Legislatures of the States have enacted several laws and the governments have, from time to time, framed policies so that the national wealth and natural resources are equitably distributed among all sections of people so that have-nots of the society can aspire to compete with haves. 17. The role of the Government as provider of services and benefits to the people was noticed in R.D. Shetty v. International Airport Authority of India (1979) 3 SCC 489 in the following words: Today the Government in a welfare State, is the regulator and dispenser of special services and provider of a large number of benefits, includin .....

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..... olitical functionaries and officers of the State and/or its agencies/instrumentalities provided that this is done in a rational and judicious manner without any discrimination against anyone. In our constitutional structure, no functionary of the State or public authority has an absolute or unfettered discretion. The very idea of unfettered discretion is totally incompatible with the doctrine of equality enshrined in the Constitution and is an antithesis to the concept of rule of law. 19. In his work `Administrative Law' (6th) Edition, Prof. H.W.R. Wade, highlighted distinction between powers of public authorities and those of private persons in the following words: ... The common theme of all the authorities so far mentioned is that the notion of absolute or unfettered discretion is rejected. Statutory power conferred for public purposes is conferred as it were upon trust, no absolutely - that is to say, it can validly be used only in the right and proper way which Parliament when conferring it is presumed to have intended. Although the Crown's lawyers have argued in numerous cases that unrestricted permissive language confers unfettered discretion, the truth is tha .....

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..... f law for the court. In a matter of this kind it is not possible to draw a hard and fast line, but if the Minister, by reason of his having misconstrued the Act or for any other reasons, so uses his discretion as to thwart or run counter to the policy and objects of the Act, then our law would be very defective if persons aggrieved were not entitled to the protection of the court. 21. In Breen v. Amalgamated Engineering Union (1971) 2 QB 175, Lord Denning MR said: The discretion of a statutory body is never unfettered. It is a discretion which is to be exercised according to law. That means at least this: the statutory body must be guided by relevant considerations and not by irrelevantly. It its decision is influenced by extraneous considerations which it ought not to have taken into account, then the decision cannot stand. No matter that the statutory body may have acted in good faith; nevertheless the decision will be set aside. That is established by Padfield v. Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food which is a landmark in modern administrative law. 22. In Laker Airways Ltd. v. Department of Trade 1977 QB 643, Lord Denning discussed prerogative of the Minister .....

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..... hen was) in V. Punnen Thomas v. State of Kerala AIR 1969 Ker. 81 (Full Bench): The Government is not and should not be as free as an individual in selecting recipients for its largesses. Whatever its activities, the Government is still the Government and will be subject to the restraints inherent in its position in a democratic society. A democratic Government cannot lay down arbitrary and capricious standards for the choice of persons with whom alone it will deal. Bhagwati, J. also noticed some of the observations made by Ray, C.J. in Eursian Equipments and Chemicals Ltd. v. State of West Bengal (1975) 1 SCC 70 who emphasized that when the Government is trading with public the democratic form of Government demands equality and absence of arbitrariness and discrimination in such transactions and held: ..........This proposition would hold good in all cases of dealing by the Government with the public, where the interest sought to be protected is a privilege. It must, therefore, be taken to be the law that where the Government is dealing with the public, whether by way of giving jobs or entering into contracts or issuing quotas or licences or granting other forms of l .....

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..... various considerations which have weighed with the Government in taking a particular action, that the court would have to decide whether the action of the Government is reasonable and in public interest. But one basic principle which must guide the court in arriving at its determination on this question is that there is always a presumption that the governmental action is reasonable and in public interest and it is for the party challenging its validity to show that it is wanting in reasonableness or is not informed with public interest. This burden is a heavy one and it has to be discharged to the satisfaction of the court by proper and adequate material. The court cannot lightly assume that the action taken by the Government is unreasonable or without public interest because, as we said above, there are a large number of policy considerations which must necessarily weigh with the Government in taking action and therefore the court would not strike down governmental action as invalid on this ground, unless it is clearly satisfied that the action is unreasonable or not in public interest. But where it is so satisfied, it would be the plainest duty of the court under the Constitutio .....

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..... rational nexus to the objective sought to be achieved, it does not permit the power to pick and choose arbitrarily out of several persons falling in the same category. A transparent and objective criteria/procedure has to be evolved so that the choice among the members belonging to the same class or category is based on reason, fair play and non-arbitrariness. It is essential to lay down as a matter of policy as to how preferences would be assigned between two persons falling in the same category. If there are two eminent sportsmen in distress and only one petrol pump is available, there should be clear, transparent and objective criteria/procedure to indicate who out of the two is to be preferred. Lack of transparency in the system promotes nepotism and arbitrariness. It is absolutely essential that the entire system should be transparent right from the stage of calling for the applications up to the stage of passing the orders of allotment. 28. In Shrilekha Vidyarthi v. State of U.P. (1991) 1 SCC 212, the Court unequivocally rejected the argument based on the theory of absolute discretion of the administrative authorities and immunity of their action from judicial review and .....

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..... requirement of every State action qualifying for its validity on this touch-stone, irrespective of the field of activity of the State, has long been settled. Later decisions of this Court have reinforced the foundation of this tenet and it would be sufficient to refer only to two recent decisions of this Court for this purpose. 29. Similarly, in L.I.C. of India v. Consumer Education Research Centre (1995) 5 SCC 482, the Court negatived the argument that exercise of executive power of the State was immune from judicial review and observed: .... Every action of the public authority or the person acting in public interest or its acts give rise to public element, should be guided by public interest. It is the exercise of the public power or action hedged with public element becomes open to challenge. If it is shown that the exercise of the power is arbitrary, unjust and unfair it should be no answer for the State, its instrumentality, public authority or person whose acts have the insignia of public element to say that their actions are in the field of private law and they are free to prescribe any conditions or limitations in their actions as private citizens, similicitor, d .....

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..... sub-regulation (c) of Regulation 5 is public auction, allotment or otherwise. When public authority discharges its public duty the word otherwise would be construed to be consistent with the public purpose and clear and unequivocal guidelines or rules are necessary and not at the whim and fancy of the public authorities or under their garb or cloak for any extraneous consideration. It would depend upon the nature of the scheme and object of public purpose sought to be achieved. In all cases relevant criterion should be pre-determined by specific rules or regulations and published for the public. Therefore, the public authorities are required to make necessary specific regulations or valid guidelines to exercise their discretionary powers, otherwise, the salutory procedure would be by public auction. The Division Bench, therefore, has rightly pointed out that in the absence of such statutory regulations exercise of discretionary power to allot sites to private institutions or persons was not correct in law. 31. What needs to be emphasized is that the State and/or its agencies/instrumentalities cannot give largesse to any person according to the sweet will and whims of the poli .....

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..... ligible persons, institutions/organisations to participate in the process of allotment, whether by way of auction or otherwise. In a given case the Government may allot land at a fixed price but in that case also allotment must be preceded by a wholesome exercise consistent with Article 14 of the Constitution. 34. The allotment of land by the State or its agencies/instrumentalities to a body/organization/institution which carry the tag of caste, community or religion is not only contrary to the idea of Secular Democratic Republic but is also fraught with grave danger of dividing the society on caste or communal lines. The allotment of land to such bodies/organisations/institutions on political considerations or by way of favoritism and/or nepotism or with a view to nurture the vote bank for future is constitutionally impermissible. 35. We may now revert to the facts of this case. Admittedly, the application for reservation of land was made by Shri Kailash Joshi, in his capacity as convener of Memorial Trust. The respondents have not placed on record any document to show that on the date of application, the Memorial Trust was registered as a public trust. During the course of .....

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..... the impugned allotment may not be annulled because the State has a definite policy of allotting land to religious, social, educational and philanthropic bodies, organisations/institutions without any advertisement or inviting applications and without even charging premium is being mentioned only to be rejected. From the lists annexed with the affidavits of Shri Uma Shankar Bhargav and Shri Anil Srivastava it does appear that the State and its functionaries have allotted various parcels of land to different institutions and organizations between 1982 to 2008. Large number of these allotments have been made to the departments/establishments of the Central Government/State Governments and their agencies/instrumentalities. Some plots have been allotted to the hospitals and charitable institutions. Some have been allotted to different political parties, but quite a few have been allotted to the caste/community based bodies. Allotments have also been made without charging premium and at an annual rent of Re. 1/- only. 39. In our view, these allotments cannot lead to an inference that the State Government has framed a well-defined and rational policy for allotment of land. The RBC als .....

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..... or which it is earmarked. Section 23-A was inserted in 1992 and amended in 2005 with a view to empower the State Government to modify the development plan or zoning plan. However, keeping in view the basic objective of planned development of the areas to which the Act is applicable, the Legislature designedly did not give blanket power to the State Government to modify the development plan. The power of modification of development plan can be exercised only for specified purposes. In terms of Section 23-A(1)(a), the development plan can be modified by the State Government either suo motu or at the request of the Authority for any proposed project of the Government of India or the State Government and its enterprises or for any proposed project relating to development of the State or for implementing a scheme of the Authority. Under clause (b), the State Government can entertain an application from any person or association of persons for modification of development plan for the purpose of undertaking any activity or scheme which is considered by the State Government or the Director, on the advice of the committee constituted for this purpose, to be beneficial to the society. This i .....

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..... n authority then it is the duty of the Court to enquire into the matter. 43. The argument of Shri Ranjit Kumar that the doctrine of prospective over ruling should be invoked and the allotment made in favour of respondent No.5 may not be quashed sounds attractive but cannot be accepted because we have found that the impugned allotment is the result of an exercise undertaken in gross violation of Article 14 of the Constitution and is an act of favoritism and nepotism. The judgment in Harish Dhingra v. State of Haryana (supra) on which reliance was placed by Shri Ranjit Kumar is clearly distinguishable. In that case the Court had noted that plots had been allotted by the Chief Minister out of his discretionary quota in the backdrop of an earlier judgment of the Division Bench of the High Court in S.R. Dass v. State of Haryana (1988 PLJ 123) and several allottees had altered their position. 44. In view of the above discussion, we do not consider it necessary to deal with the argument of Shri Ravi Shanker Prasad and Shri Ranjit Kumar that the land could have been allotted to the Memorial Trust even though it has not been registered as a trust under the 1951 Act or the Indian Trust .....

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