The case :
Bollywood actor Rani Mukherjee purchased some land in Ningaonkovali village, on the border of Nasik and Ahmednagar districts, Shirdi, Maharashtra. Earlier, there was a sugar factory on the said land that was subsequently closed. Since the factory had excess land, the government took it over in accordance with the Urban Land Ceiling Act (ULCA) and handed it over to the Maharashtra State Farming Corporation (MSFC). As the land remained unused for a long time, the MSFC sold it to the original owner, a farmer who worked in a hotel in Shirdi town. From the farmer, Rani bought the plot in December 2005 for Rs.3.3 million. However, when she applied for registration of the plot in her name, the revenue department refused permission and stressed that as it was an agriculture land, only a farmer could buy it. The deputy collector of Ahmednagar district conducted an inquiry and Rani was asked to pay penalty for buying a farmland. Since the actress failed to pay the penalty, the Shrimanpur SDO ordered her name be deleted from the sale deed.
Against this decision of the Shrirampur Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) canceling jher ownership of the said land and direting her to surrender the said land, Rani Mukherji, through her father Shri Ram Mukherjee, filed a petition in the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court in June 2008, challenging the cancellation of her ownership of a piece of land in Maharashtra.
Her petition challenging the Shrirampur sub-divisional officer’s (SDO) Mr. Nandkumar Suryavanshi’s order, came up for hearing before Justice Naresh H.Patil who passed order on 19.6.2008 thereby staying the SDO's order and said that Rani Mukherjee ws entitled to get her name recorded in the Revenue Records.
For the exact Text of said order of the High Court, kindly email me. I will email the Text of the Order, which is in Pdf format.
