Maharashtra withdraws illegal building order passed by Narayan Rane

The Maharashtra government on Wednesday informed the Bombay High Court that it had withdrawn an illegal order passed by him in the past.

“In the interest of the students, an illegal order has been revoked. The students, their parents should know that an illegal order was passed by the government,” the division Bench of Justices A.S. Oka and A.S. Chandurkar said while disposing of the petition.

Mr. Rane, as Revenue Minister, superseding the State government’s order granted permissions for the construction of a plush school in Nashik within 1.5 km of Gangapur dam. A Public Interest Litigation filed in the Bombay High Court claimed that this had endangered the lives and safety of the students.

On Wednesday, the State government said it revoked the order of June 22, 2007 passed by Mr. Rane. Recently, the government wrote to Nashik District Collector to initiate criminal proceedings against the school administration.

However, the court granted a respite to the school by asking the authorities not to take any action against it for three months. “Protection will have to granted for a limited period in the larger interest of the students taking education,” the Bench observed.

The school administration had, during the hearing of the PIL, raised serious objections to the locus of the petitioner. It alleged that the petitioner had filed the PIL as the school refused to purchase diesel from his petrol pump. The court thereafter said it would treat the petition as suo motu due to the issues raised in it.

Responding to the objections raised by the school administration about the media coverage of the case, the court cautioned the petitioners who give information to the media.

“We must add that parties to litigation, and especially the petitioners in PIL will have to show a great deal of circumspection while reporting to the media about what transpired in the court,” the Bench said.