HC seeks report on allotment of land in Noida for hotels

A Division Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Amitava Lala and Justice P K S Baghel passed the order on a PIL filed by a social outfit 'Madhav Samaj Nirman Samiti' challenging the appointment of IAS officers Rakesh Bahadur and Sanjeev Saran as Noida's Chairman and CEO respectively.

In the PIL it has been alleged that during 2005-07, when Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav was the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Bahadur and Saran were respectively Chairman and CEO of Noida and had facilitated sale of prime land at throwaway prices to hoteliers which caused loss of thousands of crores of rupees to the state exchequer. It claimed that the officers were also accused of misappropriating large amounts of money.

A case was registered against them in 2009, when Mayawati-led BSP was in power in UP, and they had remained under suspension for about three years.

However, after the Samajwadi Party returned to power following the assembly polls held this year, the Akhilesh Yadav government appointed the two officers to the very posts they were holding earlier despite the fact that criminal investigation was pending against them and a chargesheet has been filed in course of the departmental inquiry which they were facing.

This, the PIL, alleged was done to help the officers "cover up their misdeeds and tamper with the original records".

Appointing counsel Pradeep Rai as the advocate commissioner, the court directed him to submit a report on the alleged land scam and the role of the two bureaucrats and fixed September 12 as the next date of hearing in the matter.