A bench of Supreme court of India comprising Justices
M.Y.Eqbal and P.C.Ghosh in its judgment dated 26th September 2014 in the case
of ‘CIDCO vs Platinum Entertainment’ Civil Appeal no. 9264/2014 upheld the CIDCO’s
action of cancelling the land allotted
to the respondents allottees by undue favour at the instance of the Minister.
The court held “State and its agencies and instrumentalities
cannot give largesse to any person at sweet will and whims of the
political entities or officers of the
State. However, decisions and action of
the State must be founded on a sound,
transparent and well defined policy which shall be made known to the public.
The disposal of Government land by adopting a
discriminatory and arbitrary
method shall always be avoided and it should be
done in a fair
and equitable manner as the allotment on favoritism or nepotism
influences the exercises of discretion.
Even assuming that if the Rule
or Regulation prescribes the mode
of allotment by entertaining individual
application or by tenders or
competitive bidding, the Rule of Law requires publicity to be given before such allotment is made”.
The court further observed “we observe,
that notwithstanding Regulation
4, as contained in the Regulations, the appellant CIDCO may take all endeavour to make allotments of
plots by open tender or competing bids and shall not take any decision for
allotment of Government
land at the instance of the Ministers and High
Dignitaries for any purposes whatsoever”.
Click below for the Full Judgment.
