SC seeks govt view on military land use

Admits for hearing a public interest suit alleging DefMin sitting on repeated CAG probe reports, painting a dismal picture; CJI's bench wants replies in 4 weeks

The Supreme Court issued notices on Monday to the Directorate General of Defence Estates (DGDE) and the Union government on a public interest petition from Common Cause, a citizens body, seeking investigation into alleged encroachment of 200,000 acres of military land. These are said to be often used for commercial purposes by private parties, including several golf courses, without paying dues to the government.

The Bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam asked the government to respond to the allegations within four weeks, after hearing counsel Prashant Bhushan. The petition wants the land to be recovered and accountability for the lapses fixed. It also wants a policy to manage the use of defence land.

The defence and railways ministries are the largest landholders in the country, said Bhushan. The petition quotes the 35th performance audit report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) to support its prayer. The petition says the ministry of defence holds 1.73 million acres, of which 157,000 acres are within the 62 notified cantonments and 1.8 million acres are outside these. When these cantonments and military stations were planned, they were usually far removed from towns. With growing urbanisation and consequent pressure on land, much of the defence holding, both inside and outside cantonments, are now prime real estate. The CAG has through a series of reports on the issue pointed to glaring instances of irregularities and illegalities in the management of defence lands, resulting in huge losses to the public exchequer. An audit (Report 35 of 2010-11) covering 2004-05 to 2008-09 says, for instance, that there are large scale errors in the land calculation sheets made available by the local military authorities and in the land records of defence estate officers  pertaining to A-1 lands. Computerisation of land records under the Raksha Bhoomi project has been unsatisfactory; there is also unjustified delay in timely mutation of land in favour of the ministry, with the period of waiting ranging from a year to 60 years. CAG says the land audit cell of the office of the DGDE gave its first report in September 1995 on misutilisation and non-utilisation of defence land and buildings. Army HQ suggested the ministry amend the land rules before continuation of the audit. The ministry did not and DGDE also allowed the mechanism of land audit to lapse.