CM's quota flats: Justice Patil to probe illegal allotments

The Bombay High Court today appointed Justice J A Patil (retd) to probe alleged irregularities in the allotment of flats under the Maharashtra Chief Minister's discretionary housing quota since 1982.
A division bench headed by Justice Abhay Oka made the appointment during the hearing of a public interest litigation filed by activist Ketan Tirodkar.
The PIL alleges that many people got more than one flat under the CM's quota by making false declarations. It also says that most beneficiaries are politicians or those who are close to politicians.
Justice Patil, a retired High Court judge, has been asked to submit his report and recommendations about further action by April 30, 2015.

In the meantime, the court asked the state government to continue its ongoing action against those who got the flats by filing false affidavits.
The judges also asked such beneficiaries to return the flats, or pay up the price if they have sold off the flats.

The court ordered that the government must ensure that those who have got multiple flats hand over the possession back to the authorities.
The one-man Patil commission has been asked to scrutinise all the applications for flats since 1982, and look for the cases where a single person has got more than one flat.

The government has filed FIRs against 27 persons for getting flats fraudulently.
The allotment under the CM's quota has now been stopped following the court's order. Under the scheme, the flats were supposed to be given to freedom fighters, artists and sports persons.