School loses govt land on HC order

Updated on: Saturday, January 08, 2011

The Bombay high court set aside a government resolution (GR) in favour of the Cuffe Parade-based G D Somani School, which was allotted a 2, 850-square metres plot to construct a municipal school, but which failed to build it.

As the corporation (BMC) made a statement that it is in a position to construct the school building, therefore the justification given by the government for allotting 50 per cent of the plot to the (G D Somani) school trust no longer exists, observed a division bench of justices D K Deshmukh and N D Deshpande.

In a 23-page judgment, the court directed the government to let the BMC have the land on the same terms and conditions as in a GR dated March 12, 1980. The judgment was given on a PIL filed by the Cuffe Parade Residents Association in 1991. The PIL stated that in 1980, the government had leased 5,700 square meters of land to the BMC for Re 1 per year so that the municipality could construct a primary school.

The petitioners claimed that in the Development Plan of 1990, the plot was divided into two parts by the government. The BMC was to construct the school on one half. The other half was to be developed into a public playground.

The government allotted half the land to the G D Somani School after the BMC informed the authorities in 1990 that it did not have the finances to develop the plot into a playground. The municipality proposed that the G D Somani School Trust was willing to construct a school building for the corporation if it is allowed to develop the remaining plot into a playground.

School loses govt land on HC order

More Education news