A Division bench of the Bombay High Court at Goa on Thursday issued notice to the Goa Government and former Haryana Minister Gopal Kanda’s Golden Globe Hotels Private Limited on a petition over a move to renew and grant an offshore Casino licence to the company. As the Government sought time to file a reply, the Court, comprising Justice F.M. Reis and Justice Nutan Sardessai, directed that the matter be placed for hearing before the vacation Judge next week.
Activist lawyer Aires Rodrigues filed the petition seeking recall of the order, which was passed by the Bombay High Court at Goa on August 1. It was passed after a misleading statement was made by Additional Advocate General Dattaprasad Lawande to the Court, which was contrary to the official records.
The petitioner has pointed out that the Court was wrongly informed by Additional Advocate General that the Government had favorably considered the representation made by the company to renew their license from the year 2011 to 2016.
Stating that the Additional Advocate General could not have made a statement contrary to the official position of the Government, the petitioner has drawn the attention of the Court to the affidavit filed by the Under Secretary Home on December 7, 2015 that the expired Casino License could not be renewed.
He has also drawn the High Court’s attention to a cabinet decision taken by the Goa Government in 2013 not to renew expired Casino licences.
Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar had on Wednesday told The Hindu that his government has recovered Rs. 46 crores of dues in arrears from the said casino company following the on-going Court case recently. The issue of renewal of the license was not at all linked to that, he said.
Goa at present has five offshore casinos floating in river Mandovi and slightly less than a dozen onshore in hotels of five star category and above.
