SC tells Sekhar to return Bhondsi land

new delhi: the supreme court on friday directed the bharat yatra kendra trust, headed by former prime minister chandrasekhar, to hand over 51 acres of land around his ashram on the outskirts of the capital to the haryana government within two months. imposing a cost of rs 25,000 on the trust for illegally occupying village land and directing government to take back the land, a bench comprising justice r p sethi and justice k g balakrishanan severely criticised the roles of chandrasekhar, haryana government and the bhondsi village panchayat.‘‘the manner in which the gram panchayat and the state government have dealt with the matter shows that they were overshadowed by the towering personality of chandrasekhar, chairman of the trust,’’ it said while delivering its verdict in the pil filed by b l wadhera alleging irregularities in the manner in which gifts were made to the trust. justice sethi, writing the judgement, said, ‘‘the land, which was intended to be used for the scheduled castes and backward classes, admittedly, the oppressed section of the society, apparently appears to have been usurped by the trust under the shadow of the politically influential personality and stature of its chairman.’’ forest land measuring 33 acres was gifted to chandrasekhar’s ashram for the purpose of construction of a civil dispensary and another 18 acres for construction of a college and polytechnic. the bench said neither the state government nor the ashram could satisfy it ‘‘regarding the legality and validity of the gift deeds’’ which were made without compliance of condition made in the government order granting approval to the gift. quashing the gifts made to the trust by the bhondsi panchayat, the apex court directed the trust to hand over the land to the state government. the court directed constitution of a committee headed by the state chief secretary within 15 days, to formulate a scheme for the utilisation of the land. of the rs 25,000 cost imposed on the trust, the bench said rs 20,000 would be paid to advocate uday umesh lalit, who assisted the court as amicus curiae. balance rs 5,000 would be paid to the petitioner, it added. holding that the bhondsi gram panchayat had no power, right or jurisdiction to transfer land measuring 33 acres by way of gift, justice sethi said that the gram panchayat has no right to deal with the property of the people in the manner they have done. (pti)