M A I N   N E W S

SC seeks report from Chief Secy
Patiala college dispute case
S. S. Negi
Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, January 23
The Supreme Court has asked for an inquiry report from the Punjab Chief Secretary about the delay in filing of an appeal by the state in a land dispute case pertaining to Government College of Education at Lehal in Patiala, which was constructed at a cost of Rs 100 crore.

The delay in filing a special leave petition (SLP) against the May 18, 2001 decree of Punjab and Haryana High Court against the state government in a dispute over a 33-bigha plot on which infrastructure of seven educational institutions existed, was taken very seriously by a Bench of Mr Justice N Santosh Hegde and Mr Justice S B Sinha, who said that the government seemed to be not concerned about loosing such a huge complex.

The apex court though had admitted Punjab Government’s SLP despite it being time barred after the request of Additional Solicitor General Amrendra Sharan that the state would suffer immensely if its petition was not admitted and the High Court order was not stayed, the Bench sought to know the reason for the delay in filing of the appeal.

While admitting the SLP in October last the apex court said “The petitioner (state) should file an affidavit showing what action has been taken against the officers concerned who are responsible for the delay in filing the review petition.” Subsequently it had given a respite to the Punjab Government for the time being by staying the High Court order.

As Sharan and Punjab’s Additional Advocate General (AAG) R K Rathore, told the court that Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had already ordered an inquiry by the Chief Secretary into the matter, the court said the probe report should be placed before it by January 30, when the matter was likely to come up for hearing.

As per the documents placed on record along with the SLP, Punjab’s Legal Department had at one point of time even recommended to close the case instead of filing an appeal in the apex court. This was done even after the Department of Education had expressed concern over loosing land worth Rs 30 crore on which seven educational institutions with infrastructure worth Rs 70 crore existed.

The institutions which faced threat of demolition following the decree of the High Court in favour of Amarjit Singh, who had claimed title over the land, included the College of Education, Teachers Training Institute, Commerce College, Government Senior Secondary School, a primary school and boys and girls hostels.

As per the documents, the Department of Education had woken up on April 30, 2003, when Principal Secretary of Education N S Rattan wrote a letter to Legal Department seeking its opinion about filing the appeal. Prior to this Deputy Advocate General (DAG), to whom the case was referred for his comments, in his opinion on April 23, 2003, had stated “No fruitful purpose will be served by filing SLP in the apex court.”

Following his opinion the matter was referred to the Additional Advocate General, who also agreed with the opinion of the DAG in his note of April 30. Subsequently the Advocate General had consigned the file to the record on May 2, 2003 despite receiving a letter from the Education Secretary on April 30 itself, documents suggest.

The Education Department had only woken up when Amarjit Singh sought to execute the decree against the state for return of the land, which could be done only after the demolition of the entire complex.