After CM Shinde, Maharashtra minister Abdul Sattar in trouble over regularisation of land

Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis said the government needs to study the court order. “Nobody will be spared if found guilty, but we haven’t gone through the details. The minister is the right person to present his side and he is not present in the House at the moment,” he said.

The Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court has stayed the government order raising a question mark on how “public utility land/gairan land is allowed to be usurped by private individuals”.

The High Court order dated December 22 pointed out the directions given by the Supreme Court in the case of Jagpal Singh and others Vs State of Punjab and others that no public utility land/gairan land can be regularised and allotted to any person or private body.

Sattar had passed the order on June 17, 2022, while he was Minister of State for Revenue in the erstwhile MVA government led by Uddhav Thackeray. The land from Ghodbabhul village in Washim district was handed over to one Yogesh Khandare.

A letter written by Washim District Collector S Shanmugarajan on July 5 to Additional Chief Secretary (Revenue) Nitin Kareer (a copy of which is with The Indian Express) pointed out that the execution of the order from Sattar would amount to a violation of orders given by the Bombay High Court and the Supreme Court.

Since then, the Collector is yet to receive any communication from the Additional CS’s office in this regard. The letter also mentioned that Khandare’s claim of the said land being cultivated by his grandfather was found to be untrue. “How can the minister act so brazenly and despite court strictures against him, he remains in his position? The government must immediately sack him,” Leader of Opposition Ajit Pawar said in the Assembly

Congress MLA and former CM Prithviraj Chavan said the next hearing of the case is scheduled in January and the minister can influence the verdict in the next hearing, hence he should resign.