The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : Hearing in HMT land deal case adjourned

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Tuesday, Feb 19, 2008
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Hearing in HMT land deal case adjourned

Kochi: A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Monday adjourned to February 28 the hearing on a writ petition seeking a CBI probe into the sale of 70 acres of land by HMT to a Mumbai-based company.

When the petition came up for hearing before the Bench of Chief Justice H.L. Dattu and Justice K.M. Joseph, the Advocate-General told the court that the government would take a decision on the land transaction in a week. The court granted the Advocate-General a week’s time to file a counter-affidavit in the case. The petition was filed by the State Human Rights Centre, Thrissur. Petitioner’s counsel submitted that the Advocate-General had given a legal opinion on the issue to the government and that the government had referred it to the ruling Left Democratic Front.

The petition sought to declare illegal the agreement entered into between Blue Star Realtors Private Ltd, a subsidiary of Housing Development Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL), and HMT for selling 70 acres of land in the possession of HMT at Kalamassery in Ernakulam. The petitioner contended that HMT had no right to sell the land to a third party. The decision was not backed by any government sanction. HMT, in its counter-affidavit, justified its action and said that it had absolute right over the land.

The petitioner sought a directive to the government to produce the legal opinion given by the Advocate-General. The petition said a committee headed by the Chief Secretary which went into the controversy had submitted its report on the land transaction. The committee found that the transaction was not in compliance with statutory requirements and so it recommended that the land be resumed. The petitioner pointed out that the Advocate-General had given a legal opinion justifying the land transaction. The Advocate-General should not have given such an opinion, especially when the matter was pending before the High Court. In fact, the opinion reportedly given by the Advocate-General was in direct conflict with the findings of the committee headed by the Chief Secretary.

The petitioner sought to implead Revenue Minister K.P. Rajendran and Industries Secretary T. Balakrishnan as respondents in the writ petition. The petitioner pointed out that it was revealed by the media that the Revenue Minister had suggested at a Cabinet meeting that the recommendations of the committee be implemented.

But this was not agreed to by other Ministers.

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