NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Friday affirmed the Uttar Pradesh State Industrial Development Corporation’s decision to cancel allotment of 125 acres of land in Sultanpur to Kamla Nehru Memorial Trust (KNMT), named after Congress politician Rahul Gandhi’s great grandmother, saying a huge tract of industrial land was allotted without evaluating benefits to the public.Dismissing KNMT’s appeal, a bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh said that though the land was allotted in 2003, the trust failed to make timely payment of the cost of the land and kept seeking “unwarranted concessions, including waiver of interest and rescheduling of dues”. It also cancelled the subsequent allotment of the same land to Jagdishpur Paper Mills.Terming KNMT a chronic defaulter, the bench said, “UPSIDC’s action in treating KNMT as a defaulter was, therefore, both justified and necessary to preserve the integrity of the allotment process. Allowing such deliberate defaults to persist unchecked would undermine the entire framework of land allocation and set a detrimental precedent.”Writing the judgment, Justice Kant faulted UPSIDC for not following the public trust doctrine in allotment of lands. “While we have upheld the cancellation due to KNMT’s default, the circumstances reveal systemic concerns in the original allocation process. UPSIDC allotted the land to KNMT within merely two months of application (in 2003), raising questions about the thoroughness of the evaluation. Furthermore, during the pendency of this dispute, UPSIDC demonstrated remarkable alacrity in considering alternative allotments to Jagdishpur Paper Mills Ltd,” it said.Justice Kant said the public trust doctrine required that allocations must be preceded by a thorough assessment of public benefits, beneficiary credentials, and safeguards ensuring continued compliance with stated purposes. None of it was enforced while allotting the land to KNMT or the paper mill, the bench said and cancelled the allotment to the paper mill.SC said, “UPSIDC ought to have considered verifiable evidence of economic benefits, employment generation potential, environmental sustainability, and alignment with regional development objectives to demonstrate that the decision serves the collective benefit.”“The failure to adopt transparent mechanisms not only deprived the public exchequer of potential revenue, as evidenced by the substantial appreciation in the value of such a large tract of land, but also created a system where privileged access supersedes equal opportunity. This betrays the fiduciary relationship between the State and its citizens,” it said.SC directed the UP government and UPSIDC to ensure that all future land allotments must be made in a transparent, non-discriminatory and fair manner, and fetched maximum revenue while achieving the larger public interests – industrial development, environmental sustainability and regional economic objectives.
