TMI Blog2018 (9) TMI 1389X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rit petition has been filed by the petitioner in grave abuse of process when two writ petitions seeking similar relief have already been dismissed vide common order dated 17.10.2016. In view of the above discussion, we therefore, of the considered view that the writ petition filed by the petitioner has no merit and is accordingly, dismissed with cost of ₹ 10,000/-. The said cost amount, deposited by the petitioner shall be donated in the Government of Kerala, Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund. - Writ Petition No.72/2017 (PIL) - - - Dated:- 27-8-2018 - Shri P.K. Jaiswal And Shri S.K. Awasthi, JJ. For the Petitioner : Shri A.M. Mathur, learned Senior Advocate with Shri A. Dhanodkar, Advocate For the Respondents : Shri P. Kaurav, Advocate General with Ms. Bhakti Vyas, learned Government Advocate And Shri Saransh Jain, Advocate ORDER PER P.K. JAISWAL, J:- The writ petitioner (Dr. Tapan Bhattacharya), has filed this Public Interest Litigation against the allotment of land admeasuring 40 acres to respondent no.5 (M/s. Patanjali Ayurvedic Ltd. Padarth). 2. According to the petitioner, the allotment of 40 acres of land to M/s. Patanjali Ayurve ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... li Company, District-Dhar to establish the Food Processing Unit and, therefore, he came to know about the aforesaid allotment and prayed for the following reliefs:- That by a suitable writ, direction or order, this Hon'ble Court may be pleased to - (i) quash/set aside the Small Scale and Micro Industries Rules, 2016; (ii) quash/set aside the allotment order of land, if any, in favour of Patanjali Food Processing Company owned by Baba Ramdev; (iii) State Government by a writ of prohibition be restrained from selling the Patanjali's food products through cooperative societies and Fair Price shops; (iv) Any other suitable relief that this Hon'ble Court deems fit. 5. In W.P. No.7033/2016, the petitioner is praying for the following reliefs:- (i)direct the respondents to cancel the Global Investors Summit to be held on 22nd and 23rd October, 2016; OR If investors' Meet is at all held, this decision should be subject to the decision of this petition; (ii) cancel the allotments already made contrary to the principles laid down by the Supreme Court in the matter of granting largesse in the form of industrial plots to the investors; (iii) ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rnment is investing ₹ 30 Crores for Global Investors Summit by the Municipal Corporation for beautification and construction of road-divider, railing, boundary wall of green belt, painting on grills, VIP route etc. 9. Learned Senior Counsel for the petitioner has submitted that big industrial houses had taken thousands of crores of rupees from Nationalized Bank and they are in bad shape, but inspite of that Government is going to allot land to them for setting up of industries on a throwaway price. 10. In Dhar, Jhabua, Ratlam and Ujjain, the State Government is converting /transferring the agriculture land for industrial purpose. The lands are being allotted arbitrarily, discriminatory, malafidely and without following the principles of allotment of Government largess and the law laid down by the apex Court in the case of City Industrial Development V/s. Platinum Entertainment , [AIR 2015 SC 340], Akhil Bhartiya Upbhokta Sangh V/s. State of M.P. Ors. , [AIR 2011 SC 1834], Brij Mohanlal V/s. Union of India, [(2012) 6 SCC 502 and Swaraj Abhiyan (I) V/s . Union of India, [AIR 2016 SC 2929]. It is also submitted that if industrial houses are set up in Ind ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e hotels in Indore. The transportation should also be charged from them. They are moneyed people and they can afford to do so. (vi) The proposed expenditure of ₹ 3 Crores on beautification should be curtailed from ₹ 3 Crores to maximum ₹ 10 Lakhs and balance money be spent on schools, M.Y. Hospital and colonies of poor, Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and minorities; (vii) The Government undertaking which are taking part in the Summit, the State Government, the Municipal Corporation must publish their accounts for the information of public after the Meet if at all held for public audit; (viii) The officers of the stay should be reduced in the Convention Centre from 7 days to 3 days. (ix) The items in the dinner should be curtailed and the lunch and diner charges should not exceed more than ₹ 200/- to 500/- per plate. The extravagant expenses should be spent for paying proper compensation to the farmers whose crops have been damaged in the untimely rains in October. 12. Per contra, Shri Jain, learned AAG orally opposed about the maintainability of the writ petition and has drawn our attention to the Industrial promotion policy 20 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d fashion, keeping in forefront the public interest. To ensure that aforesaid dominant objectives are achieved, this Court has added new dimension to the contours of judicial review and it has undergone tremendous change in recent years. The scope of judicial review has expanded radically and it now extends well beyond the sphere of statutory powers to include diverse forms of 'public' power in response to the changing architecture of the Government. Thus, not only has judicial review grown wider in scope; its intensity has also increased. Notwithstanding the same, it is, however, central to received perceptions of judicial review that courts may not interfere with exercise of discretion merely because they disagree with the decision or action in question; instead, courts intervene only if some specific fault can be established for example, if the decision was reached procedurally unfair . 27. The raison d'etre of discretionary power is that it promotes decision maker to respond appropriately to the demands of particular situation. When the decision making is policy based judicial approach to interfere with such decision making becomes narrower. In such ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... orted as 2014 (4) SCC 538, Common Cause V/s. Union of India reported as 2015 (7) SCC 1 and reported as Sant Longwal Institute of Engineering Technology Anr. V/s. Suresh Chandra Verma reported as 2013 Vol. X SCC 411 and submitted that the allotment of the lands is a great hazard to the Districts Dhar, Ujjain Ratlam and Indore and life and property of the residents of Madhya Pradesh resulting in violation of Article 14 of the Constitution of India. 16. Shri S. Jain, learned AAG has drawn our attention to the latest decision of the Apex Court in the case of Centre For Public Interest Litigation V/s. Union of India Ors ., reported as 2016 (6) SCC 408 and submitted that minimal interference is called for the Courts, in exercise of judicial review of a Government policy when the said policy is the outcome of deliberations of the technical experts in the fields inasmuch as Courts are not wellequipped to fathom into such domain which is left to the discretion of the executive. In paragraph 24, Hon'ble the Supreme Court stated as under :- When it comes to the judicial review of economic policy, the Courts are more conservative as such economic policies are ge ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ng economic prosperity to the people of Madhya Pradesh through sustainable industrialization, employment generation and skill set enhancement. The policy aims to improve the business environment in Madhya Pradesh by simplifying procedures across various departments in the State by strengthening the Single Window System to enable the investors to conduct their business with ease. The procedure for allotment of industrial land is a transparent procedure. On availability of any industrial land for allotment within the industrial area of M.P. Audyogik Kendra Vikas Nigam Ltd., (for short 'MPAKVN') a subsidiary of M.P. Trade and Investment Facilitation Corporation Ltd (for short 'MPTRIFAC'), the status of vacant land is uploaded online. The industry interested to set up a unit in the industrial area of MPAKVN (l) needs to apply online to the website of MPAKVN, ie., www.mpakvnindore.com. 5. The 2014 Policy shall come into force on the date of its notification in the Government of M.P. Official Gazzette. The investors shall have to register their proposal with the Single Window System developed by the respondent No.4 and obtain a registration number to avail incentives ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... be made by the Government of M.P. and, therefore, his application was processed to the Government of M.P. The land in question was earlier allotted to M/s. Madhu Milan Syntax Pvt. Ltd. Later on, they withdraw from their proposal to set up the industry and, therefore, after taking possession from the said allottee, a proposal was sent to the State Government for allotment of land in favour of the respondent No.5. 8. As per project report the respondent No.5 M/s. Patanjali Ayurvedic Ltd., is a Public Limited Company incorporated under the Indian Companies Act, 1956. 9. The Government of M.P. vide order dated 10.8.2016, decided to allot 40 acres of land on plot Nos.804, 806 and 807 Sector No.3, Industrial Estate, Pithampur of District Dhar and granted various concessions / incentives as per the aforesaid policy with a condition to set up industry processing plant and start commercial process within a period of three years from the date of order. 10. The MPAKVN vide letter dated 9.9.2016, conveyed the respondent No.5 that the total amount to be deposited by the respondent No.5 inclusive lease rent, security, service tax and other charges is ₹ 10,97,99,296/- an ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... reference over other applicants if the applied area is same. Clause (ii) (k) of Rule 12 will deal in respect of developed plot, 'first come, first serve'. Rule 25 (d) is in respect of allotment of plots for residential, commercial and for warehouse purpose. Rule 26 deals with lease rent and annual lease rent. Rule 27 deals with procedure for allotment of developed plot. 16. Learned Senior counsel for the petitioner has drawn our attention to the law laid down by the Apex Court in the case of Akhil Bhartiya Upbhokta Congress V/s. State of M.P. Others reported as 2011 (5) SCC 29, Humanity Anr. V/s. State of West Bengal Ors. reported as 2011 (6) SCC 125 and Jaykrishna Industries Ltd (thr) Director V/s. State of Maharashtra Ors. , reported as 2018 (1) SCC 123 and submitted that every action / decision of the State Government and / or its agency / instrumentalities to give largesse or confer benefit must be founded on a sound, transparent, discernible and well-defined policy, which shall be made known to the public by publication in the Official Gazette and other recognised modes of publicity and such policy must be implemented / executed by adopting a n ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... l for the petitioner as to how the same is in violation to Article 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India. 19. The land allotted to the respondent No.5 was earlier held by some other industry, which is now closed and since industrial piece was lying idle with the MPAKVN, the respondent No.5 has applied for the same to start its Mega Scale Industrial Unit, which would be beneficial for generating revenue for the State of M.P. for enhancement of employment opportunities and for establishing many other Small Scale Industries to assist and aide the respondent No.5 for fulfilling its operational requirements. 20. The earlier two Public Interest Litigations filed by the petitioner bearing W.P.No.6994/2016 and W.P.No.7033/2016, were dismissed on 17.10.2016 wherein, the same reliefs were claimed by the petitioner. A liberty was granted to challenge any allotment of land, in case, if the same is in violation of the statutory rules or Industrial Policy framed by the State Government. Enjoying the said liberty, the petitioner has made this third attempt to challenge the allotment made in favour of the respondent No.5 without any basis or foundation. 21. The petitioner claims hi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n an element of violation of Article 21 or of human rights or where the litigation has been initiated for the benefit of the poor and the underprivileged who are unable to come to Court due to some disadvantage. In those cases also it is the legal rights which are secured by the Courts. We may, however, add that Public Interest Litigation was not meant to be a weapon to challenge the financial or economic decisions which are taken by the Government in exercise of their administrative power. No doubt a person personally aggrieved by any such decision, which he regards as illegal, can impugn the same in a Court of law, but, a Public Interest Litigation at the behest of a stranger ought not to be entertained. Such a litigation cannot per se be on behalf of the poor and the downtrodden, unless the Court is satisfied that there has been violation of Article 21 and the persons adversely affected are unable to approach the Court. 24. From the aforesaid, it is clear that on completion of the entire statutory procedures the MPAKVN (I) Ltd, executed a lease deed in favour of the respondent No.5 of the said plots No.804, 806 and 807 admeasuring 40 acres (161880 Sq. Mtrs.) and conseq ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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