Improvement Trust case: 20 years on, Punjab and Haryana High Court raps Punjab for inaction
Saurabh Malik
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, May 17
Two decades after an FIR was registered following alleged fraud by a former Chairman, officials and officers of the Ludhiana Improvement Trust along with office-bearers of a house building society, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has rapped the state of Punjab for inaction after expressing its anguish.
Taking up a petition by the Ludhiana Improvement Trust and another petitioner against Shaheed Bhagat Singh Coop House Building Society Ltd and others respondents, Justice Anil Kshetarpal made it clear that a special investigation team looking into the matter would conclude the probe positively within three months before filing a report. The Ludhiana Commissioner of Police was also directed to furnish his own affidavit disclosing the detail of steps from the FIR registration till report submission.
Justice Kshetarpal asserted it was clearly established that the allotment of the plot procured by the respondent-society was a result of fraud carried out in connivance with the officials/officers of the Trust. “The government after having registered the FIR in 2001 did not take any action for 20 years. It is a sad reflection of the state officials, who miserably failed to discharge their duties. The prosecution swung into action only after this fact was pointed out to the state’s counsel and Punjab Principal Secretary, Local Government, was requested to appear,” Justice Kshetarpal asserted. The Bench was told that the respondent-society claimed itself to be the owner of 16,800 sq yards in Dugri village of Ludhiana district. The Trust proposed a scheme for planned development of approximately 400 acres as ‘Model Town Extension Part-II’, including the respondent-society’s land. The society challenged the proposed compulsory acquisition, but its petition was withdrawn in May 1976. The government, vide a notification dated June 25, 1981, decided to release the society’s entire land from compulsory acquisition subject to certain terms and conditions.
The Bench was also told that plot allotment process to six societies gained momentum despite rejection of their requests for eight years after PCS officer BD Aggarwal’s joining in May 1990 as the Trust chairman. “A fraud was sought to be perpetrated by adopting a layout plan of 400 acres in such a manner that the respondent-society’s land in possession of jhuggi dwellers was reserved for vacant area and a piece of land owned by the Trust and other societies was planned to be given to the respondent-society in the shape of developed plots,” the Bench was told.
The Ruling
- The Improvement Trust’s then management acted in a manner detrimental to its own interest
- The officials appointed to protect the corporate body’s interest assumed roles of encroachers and perpetrator in defeating its interest
- The plots were allotted without payment, which was impermissible as per the rules
