Prayagraj, 05 April (HS). A division bench of Justice VK Birla and Justice SQH Rizvi of the Allahabad High Court has recused itself from hearing the petition filed by Dr Ashok Tehliani challenging the validity of the Nazul Ordinance and will appear before another nominated bench on April 18 for hearing. Instructed to do so.
On the previous date, the court had sought information from the state government. Chief Standing Advocate Kunal Ravi had said that till now no step has been taken to evict the petitioner or remove any construction. The court did not consider an interim order necessary on this statement.
It is known that the state government implemented the policy of free holding of Nazul land in 1992. Due to which the lessees or occupiers of Nazul land deposited the prescribed fee and got the land freehold. In the cities, a large amount of Nazul land was made freehold by the District Magistrate and concrete forests were created.
The government started feeling shortage of land to implement its development plans. So, taking the decision to change the government policy, the state government has issued this ordinance to ban freeholding of Nazul land. With this ordinance, not only has the freehold been stopped but it has also been decided not to extend it further after the expiry of the lease period.