HC seeks details of land allotment in favour of former UP CS

The Allahabad High Court today directed the Uttar Pradesh government and the Noida authority to furnish details of land allotment in favour of former state Chief Secretary Neera Yadav, who was convicted by a lower court for irregularities in granting plots while she was the CEO of Noida.
A Division Bench comprising Justice Sunil Ambwani and Justice Surya Prakash Kesarwani passed the order while hearing a petition filed by Yadav, who has moved the court challenging a May 20 order by the then CEO of Noida whereby conversion of a piece of land owned by her for commercial purposes was cancelled.

Directing the state government and the Noida authority to file their counter affidavits by September 9 the court said it "would like to examine whether the petitioner, as an IAS officer on deputation to Noida as CEO, was eligible for the allotment of the plot".
The court also said that it would like to know "the validity of resolutions passed during her tenure, which Neera Yadav has relied upon, whereby it was laid down that not only plots could be allotted to government servants but the same could also be later converted for extracting better commercial value".
Besides, the court sought to know "the number of plots allotted to kith and kin" of various government servants in this fashion.

Yadav, who retired from service in 2008, had become the Chief Secretary during the Chief Ministership of Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav.
She was named in a number of corruption cases and had to quit from the top post in 2005 following a Supreme Court judgement.
Last year, she was sent to three years in jail by a special CBI court in Ghaziabad for irregularities in allotting prime land plots to bureaucrats and businessmen while she was the Noida CEO in the 1990s.