Noida plots: Probe sought against judge
An affidavit in the Supreme Court on Tuesday has added a fresh twist to the ongoing Noida land allotment controversy, reports Nagendar Sharma.
An affidavit in the Supreme Court on Tuesday has added a fresh twist to the ongoing Noida land allotment controversy. Lawyer Kamal Kapoor has demanded a judicial inquiry into the conduct of an Allahabad High Court judge who had cancelled the allotments in 2005.
Kapoor, who was among the 625 people allotted plots by the Noida Authority, has said in his affidavit that it was not appropriate for Justice BS Chauhan to have heard the matter since his name had been associated with the allotments.
A bench of the Allahabad High Court headed by Justice Chauhan had set aside the allotments in October 2005 and ordered a CBI inquiry into the matter. This had been stayed by the Supreme Court, which is likely to hear the case on Wednesday.
“In a situation where the relatives of Hon’ble Justice BS Chauhan had applied in the same scheme and one of the applications was from his own address, in all fairness and with due respect to the judge, he should have excused himself from hearing the writ petitions,” the Delhi-based lawyer said in his affidavit.
“In the light of above facts and circumstances, it is submitted that there should be a high powered judicial inquiry into the entire matter and if these easily verifiable facts are found to be correct, then the Allahabad High Court order of October 2005 must be set aside.”
The allegations have been denied by Registrar General of the Allahabad High Court.
In a letter presented to the Supreme Court, he said Justice Chauhan did not write any letter to the Noida Authority.
“Neither His Lordship nor his wife nor children made any application for allotment of plot nor any letter was written to any person making any recommendation in favour of anyone, and if there is any such letter, it is forged and fabricated,” a signed letter by Allahabad High Court Registrar General Swatantra Singh said.
Kapoor has challenged the arguments being forwarded in defence of Justice Chauhan, saying the judge has not denied that two of his relatives had applied for plots in Noida.
“There has been no denial of the fact that his relative made two applications and one of these applications shows the residential address of the applicant, which is in fact the residence of Justice Chauhan in Noida”, Kapoor said in his affidavit.
The allotments had kicked off a storm when the lists of successful applicants was made public last year. These included relatives of several judges, bureaucrats and businessmen, all of whom had denied use of influence on the Noida Authority.
