Contempt notice against Pawar

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday issued a notice to union irrigation minister Sharad Pawar asking him to explain why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against him for making statements to the media regarding a PIL alleging illegal allotment of plots in Baramati. Pawar has given six weeks to file his reply.
The PIL filed by Pune-based Shyamsundar Potare alleged that the plots owned by the Krishna Valley Corporation were distributed among various institutions run by the Pawar family in Baramati. The institutions named in the PIL include Lavasa Corporation, Senior Citizen’s Association, Kustigir Sangh, Vidya Pratishthan and Anand Smruti Pratishthan. Each institution allegedly received anything between one to 13 hectares of land.
After the PIL was filed, Pawar issued a statement in a Marathi paper denying the allegations. Potare filed a contempt petition stating that Pawar’s statement amounted to interfering with judicial proceedings.
The court had earlier said there was “prima facie substance in the allegations” made in Potare’s PIL. The PIL had further alleged that the reservations earlier made by the Krishna Valley Corporation on the disputed plots of land were set aside by an order of state water resources minister and Sharad Pawar’s nephew Ajit Pawar.
The institutions named in the petition are run by the Pawar family in Baramati. Earlier, the state government state government had adopted a defensive stand saying that the petition was filed owing to political rivalry between Potare and the Pawar family. The institutions and the government both urged the court to dismiss the petition alleging that it was malafide.
DNA Correspondent
Thursday, May 01, 2008 00:02 IST

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