Bombay High Court pulls up Maharashtra government over Adarsh scam
21 Dec 2010
The Bombay High Court today pulled up the government of Maharashtra over the Adarsh cooperative housing society scam saying it smacked of "a clear-cut case of manipulation" by its officials with each of them who cleared the file being "gifted" a flat.
Passing scathing remarks, the court also observed that the state government had gone "out of the way" to accommodate army chiefs Deepak Kapur and Nirmal Chandar Wij, who had not been initially allotted flats as they were not state residents for 15 years, but later considered as "exceptional cases".
A division bench comprising justices B H Marlapalle and U D Salvi also sought to know the reasons for the state government having not filed any FIR against the guilty.
The court's observations came on a petition filed by Adarsh cooperative housing society challenging cancellation of occupation certificate and water and power supply disconnection by the civic authorities.
"You took action against the society, what about the government officers? Why no FIR was registered till now?" the high court asked.
After perusing the society's records, and the stage-wise approval granted to its members, the court said: "It is a clear-cut case of manipulation by the collectorate, the state revenue ministry and urban development ministry.
