J.B. Pardiwala, J. - (1.) THESE Public Interest Litigations were taken up together and are being disposed of by this common judgment as the subject matters involved are almost similar. By this writ application in the nature of a Public Interest Litigation, the petitioner seeks to challenge the allotment of land admeasuring 3,76,581 sq. mtrs. situated at Mouje Koba, Ta: Gandhinagar bearing Survey No. 237, 238, 242 and 270 of the Town Planning Scheme bearing Final Plot Nos. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 in favour of the respondent No. 4 M/s. K. Raheja Corporation Ltd., for the purpose of development of I.T. Park @ Rs. 470/ - per sq.mtr.
(2.) ACCORDING to the petitioner, such decision of the State Government is against the public interest. According to the petitioner, the natural resources belong to the people but the State legally owns them on behalf of its people and from that point of view, the natural resources are considered as national assets more so because the State benefits immensely from their value. It is alleged that in allotting huge parcels of land in favour of the respondent No. 4 on a mere application filed by it, the Government has failed to act in consonance with the principles of equality and public trust. The case made -out by the Petitioner may be summarized as under: 3.1 The petitioner of Writ Petition (PIL) No. 2/2012 is a resident of Porbandar and former Sarpanch of village Bhad, whereas the petitioner of Writ Petition (PIL) No. 2/2013 is a local resident of the City of Ahmedabad and is a former member of the Gujarat State Legislative Assembly. 3.2 According to the petitioners the State Government has allotted the land in question referred to above without inviting any tender or publishing any advertisement for the same @ Rs. 470/ - per sq. meter for the development of the I.T. Park. 3.3 It is the case of the petitioners that the Government could not have made such a huge allotment of about 100 acres of land for the purpose of development of an I.T. Park, more particularly when there is no policy of the State Government for allotment of such lands for the purpose of I.T. Park. In the absence of such policy, the Government ought not to have allotted such a huge parcel of land on a mere application preferred by the respondent No. 4. 3.4 It is also the case of the petitioner that the land has been allotted in favour of the respondent No. 4 at a throwaway price of Rs. 470/ - per sq.mtr., more particularly when the land allotted by the State Government to the Indian Air Force somewhere near the subject land was at a much higher price. It is alleged by the petitioners that the respondent No. 4, a private developer, in the guise of development of an I.T. Park would be selling residential as well as commercial units at the current market rates and thereby would be deriving huge profit out of the same. In such circumstances, it could not be said that the allotment of the land by the State Government in favour of the respondent No. 4 is for a public purpose as it is more of a charity to the respondent No. 4 rather than a planned rational decision on the part of the State Government. 3.5 In such circumstances referred to above, it has been prayed by the petitioners for issue of an appropriate writ, order or direction setting aside the order of allotment dated 5/6/2006 passed in favour of respondent No. 4 by the Collector, Gandhinagar.
(3.) STANCE of the Respondent No. 4: 4.1 The project relates to an Information Technology Park at Village Koba in District Gandhinagar, and the same is in furtherance of the endeavour on the part of the Government to develop the knowledge economy and promote investment in the State to give an impetus to the overall growth, employment and infrastructure. 4.2 The said I.T. Park is being set up by the answering respondent which is an associate company of K. Raheja Corporation, one of the most reputed developers of the country. The K. Raheja Corporation group has many years of experience in setting up IT/ITES SEZs/IT Parks and is one of the premier IT/ITES Park developers of India. The group has set up such Parks in different cities of India. This includes Mindspace, Cyberabad, (West Hyderabad), Mindspace, Malad in Mumbai, Mindspace, Airoli in Navi Mumbai and Commerzone in Pune. In addition to this, the group is developing other IT parks in East Hyderabad, Navi Mumbai, etc. This is in addition to the many other varied development projects that the group has successfully completed across the country. 4.3 In the IT Parks set up by the group, many reputed multinationals like Accenture, IBM, JP Morgan, Facebook have setup their offices. 4.4 The group has received a lot of recognition for its contribution in the development of IT infrastructure. In the year 2005, the 'Maharashtra Information Technology Award' was conferred by the Government of Maharashtra for the 'outstanding contribution to IT infrastructure'. The Government of Andhra Pradesh (Information Technology and Communications Department) gave an award of excellence to Mindspace (West Hyderabad) as the finest IT Park of the State. 4.5 The IT Park/IT SEZ at village Koba is known as Mindspace Gandhinagar. The Park is a part of the Knowledge Corridor in Gujarat and is already operational and various companies/firms have set up their IT offices therein with many employees. It has already made substantial investment towards the development of the Park including construction of buildings, internal roads, landscaping, gardens, a two kilometer long public road, basic amenities, etc. as is evident from the photographs. The total investment till date comes to around Rs. 174 crore. The land on which the Park has been set up has been allotted by the State Government in furtherance of its objective of making the State a major Information Technology hub as crystallized in 2006 IT Policy and also the 2009 Industrial Policy. The land was allotted by the State Government after considering the antecedents of the respondent group and after following a detailed procedure and at a price fixed by the Government after a detailed study in that regard. 4.6 The respondent has paid the State a fair price for the land especially considering that the land was inaccessible, undeveloped and contained ravines, large pits, mounds etc. making substantial portion thereof highly unleveled. 4.7 In the year 2008, status of SEZ was granted by the Central Government for setting up IT/ITES SEZ as indicated in the notification issued by the Central Government. The Mindspace, Gandhinagar is already generating I.T. exports running into crores of rupees annually in spite of the ongoing slump in the I.T. industry past few years. The Park is expected to flourish even more and contribute a lot to the industrial development of the State. It is expected to become the largest IT SEZ of the State generating a lot of employment. The development of the Park has also resulted in the development of the surrounding area including on the side of the road built by the respondent. 4.8 The petitioner has filed this petition for political motives and has based his petition on false facts, misrepresentations and material suppressions. The petition is not filed in public interest and seeks to hit at a significant project which is in furtherance of a major policy decision of the State to promote the Information Technology industry in the State. 4.9 This petition has been filed after seven years from the date of the allotment to the respondent and suffers from gross delay and laches. It challenges an allotment which has been within the knowledge of the public, and which had been widely reported in several newspapers at the time of allotment and thereafter. The newspaper articles were published with respect to major companies setting up their IT offices in the Park. The petition has been filed after substantial development has already taken place on the land including construction of roads, buildings, amenities, landscaping, etc., after an expenditure of about Rs. 174 crore has been made by the respondent and at a time when about sixteen companies/firms have already set up their IT offices and are operating therefrom employing roughly 700 employees. 4.10 The petitioner was a Member of the Gujarat Legislative Assembly not only at the relevant time, but from 1998 till 2012. The allotment that the petitioner seeks to challenge is one of the allotments referred to in the Justice M.B. Shah Commission, which has been frequently reported in many newspapers and is publicly known. The petitioner who claims to be a vigilant and public spirited person has given no reason for filing this petition after such a long delay. In addition to that, the petitioner has himself stated in the petition that the Collector had given him the details regarding the allotment vide letter dated 7/10/2011. The petition is after about fifteen months from the Collector's said letter. The petition suffers from gross delay and deserves to be dismissed on such ground. 4.11 The petition has been filed with an oblique motive and not keeping public interest in mind. The petitioner is a politician who has been contesting elections since many years and was a member of the Legislative Assembly from 1998 until the recent elections of December, 2012. The petition was filed on 8/1/2013 i.e. just 2 days before the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors business summit organized by the State Government was to begin. The matter was circulated for hearing before this Court on 10/1/2013 and the Court passed an order issuing notice. On the very next day i.e. 11/1/2013 i.e. the day on which the Vibrant Gujarat summit began, at least 6 newspapers published articles relating to this PIL. From the reports, it is obvious that a copy of the petition was supplied to the newspaper agencies as they refer to the statements made in the memo of the petition. One another PIL challenging a different allotment has been filed by the petitioner and was listed on the same day. The timing and manner of reporting in the news article produced on record is suggestive of the motives of the petitioner. The petitioner has assigned no reason to justify as to why the petition had to be filed just prior to the summit organized by the Government when the allotment had been within the public knowledge since long and on the petitioner's own showing, he had obtained details of the allotment from the Collector about fifteen months ago. 4.12 The petitioner has alleged that land has been given at a throw away price and has repeated this allegation again and again. The petitioner has not explained as to on what basis he is asserting that the price of the land fixed is a throw away price. The petitioner has given no details about similar sale instances or about the Statement of Rates (SOR) prevailing at the relevant point of time issued by the Stamp authorities. The SOR as well as the sale instances of around the same time indicate that the price paid for the land was a fair price. The relevant extract of the then prevailing statement of rates at Koba (of 1999) makes it clear that the allegations with respect to the price are absolutely vague. 4.13 The petitioner has made false allegations with respect to the allotment procedure followed by the Government. The petition also contains misrepresentations with respect to the legal position qua allotment of land by the State. A procedure in accordance with the government resolutions and in accordance with the policy of the Government was followed prior to the said allotment after the respondent made a representation giving the general background of the group and also specific details showing its specialization in the development of Information Technology Parks and about its IT Parks in Maharashtra and Hyderabad and its other projects across India. The allotment in question was made by the government not only in furtherance of its Industrial Policy, 2003 but more particularly in furtherance of its intention of promoting the IT industry in the State. 4.14 Pursuant to the representation, a request was made by the State Government to the Chief Town Planner to assess the valuation of the land. Pursuant to that, the Chief Town Planner determined the value of the land at Rs. 470/ - per square meter. Such valuation was confirmed by the State Level Price Committee consisting of Secretaries of the various departments. Such procedure was in accordance with the government resolutions and policy and the price arrived was a fair price. As the valuation was in excess of Rs. 50 lac, the matter was thereafter referred to the Council of Ministers for taking an appropriate decision. The Council of Ministers approved the decision of allotting the land. This finally culminated in the land being allotted vide formal allotment order dated 5/6/2006 issued by the Collector. There is nothing to indicate that the petitioner had made any efforts to find out about the procedure adopted by the government before taking the decision to allot the land. The true facts have not been brought to the notice of the Court. 4.15 The petition deserves to be dismissed as irreversible equities have already been created. The respondent has carried out substantial development on the land and has incurred expenditure to the tune of about Rs. 174 crore including the amount paid towards the land. Substantial efforts have gone into the development of the land so as to bring it to a usable stage. There was no access to the land and therefore, the respondent constructed a 2 Kilometer long and a 30 meter wide public road.;