SC-ADARSH 2 LAST

Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar had said that the building Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar had said that the buildingin question was built on defence land and the Director ofMilitary Estate or his nominee would take over its possession. The High Court, while ordering demolition, had stayed theoperation for 12 weeks of its order to pull down the buildingclose to the sea at Colaba, to enable the society to move theapex court with the appeal. In its order, the HC bench had asked the Ministry ofEnvironment and Forest to carry out the demolition at theexpense of petitioners (Adarsh Society). It had also asked the Centre and Maharashtra Governmentto consider initiating civil and criminal proceedings againstbureaucrats, ministers and politicians for misuse and abuse ofpower to get plots under the scheme, originally meant forKargil war heroes and war widows. The Adarsh scam kicked up a huge political storm after itsurfaced in 2010, leading to the resignation of then CongressChief Minister Ashok Chavan. In February this year, the Maharashtra Governor accordedsanction to the CBI to prosecute Chavan under the provisionsof the Indian Penal Code in the case. In 2011, the state government had set up a two-memberjudicial commission headed by Justice J A Patil to inquireinto the scam. After probing the issue for over two years, it submittedits report in 2013, which found that there had been 25 illegalallotments, including 22 purchases made by proxy. Later, the CBI, the Income Tax Department and theEnforcement Directorate (ED) also investigated the scam. In January 2011, the union ministry of environment andforest had issued a demolition order mainly on the ground thatthe society did not have CRZ clearance. Adarsh Society had filed a petition in 2011 in the BombayHigh Court challenging the demolition order issued by theUnion Ministry of Environment and Forests. The Defence Ministry had also filed a petition in thehigh court seeking implementation of its demolition order,besides filing a title suit in the high court claiming it wasthe owner of the plot on which the plush Adarsh Societybuilding stands in South Mumbai. PTI SJK SKV MNL RKSARC