Plea against Auroville land grab dismissed

A division bench comprising Justice S Manikumar and Justice Subramonium Prasad, before whom a plea moved by one Vikram Ramakrishnan on whose representation the enquiry had taken place, said, “The very purpose of constituting the committee is to examine matters which are alleged to be serious. At this juncture, it would not be appropriate, to arrive at a conclusion that no action would be taken based on the enquiry report.”

Also, holding that it is expected that based on the enquiry report, appropriate action would be taken and, therefore, there is no need to issue any directions at this juncture, the bench said. “Even material on record does not disclose the conclusion of enquiry ordered by the Chairman, Auroville Foundation, Ministry of Human Resource Development.”

Further, on the aspect of serving a copy of the enquiry report to the petitioner, on the grounds that the enquiry had begun only on his complaint, the bench invited the attention of the petitioner to Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act, 2005, where an application could be made under the said Act for a copy of the report. Based on the allegation of rampant corruption and land grabbing in Auroville, Chairman Dr Karan Singh set up an enquiry committee comprising the Secretary as the convener and those part of the Board as members. Thereafter, the committee had reportedly submitted its report on June 30as scheduled.