Bombay high court quashes special court's land probe order against Maharashtra CS

MUMBAI: In a relief to Maharashtra chief secretary U P S Madan, the Bombay high court on Monday quashed and set aside a special court order directing the state Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to probe corruption charges levelled against the senior bureaucrat regarding land reserved for a drive-in theatre in Bandra-Kurla Complex.

A division bench of Justices Ranjit More and Bharati Dangre allowed the petition filed by Madan challenging the October 2018 order of a special ACB court.

Madan, in his petition, said that the special ACB court had passed the order without obtaining prior sanction from the government under section 197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

The bench, while allowing the petition and quashing the lower court order, said it would pass a detailed order later.

The special ACB court had ordered for the probe against Madan on an application filed by one Pratap Teli, who claimed that Madan, during his tenure as commissioner of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, had flouted norms and caused pecuniary advantage to Ranbir Maker and Manish Maker, directors of The Indian Film Combine Private Limited.

Teli, through his advocate Aditya Pratap, had submitted before the special court that Madan, as competent planning authority, had given "illegal pecuniary advantage" to Makers by flouting express provisions of the law.

According to the application and submissions made before the special court, a large plot measuring above 20 acres was reserved for a drive-in theatre in Bandra (East), a "substantial" part of which fell in the category of Coastal Zone Regulations II.

Teli claimed that as per the regulations issued on February 19, 1991, Floor Space Index (FSI) admissible only as per this notification shall prevail and that there would be no change of use, which meant that the land could only be used for the development of drive-in theatre.

Teli told the special court that despite this, FSI of 2 was granted permitting "huge construction" on the land, allowing an "illegal" change in its use to that of a shopping mall, five-star hotel, etc.