Supreme Court cancels plot No. CA 222. block of Salt Lake allotment to Sourav Ganguly by West Bengal Government

Supreme Court cancels plot No. CA 222. block of Salt Lake
allotment to Sourav Ganguly by West Bengal Government

The Supreme Court on Thursday cancelled or quashed the allotment of 63 katha land to former Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly in Kolkata.

A bench headed by Justice A K Ganguly directed Sourav Ganguly to surrender the land within two weeks

Here is the complete case how Sourav Ganguly got land in the BF block of Salt Lake City and then he got another land and finally he lost the salt lake city plot.


November 2006 –
Left government in West Bengal issued an advertisement that it wanted to give out around 50 'cottah' (a little less than an acre) of land in the posh satellite township of BF block of Salt Lake city for setting up a school.

Twenty applicants applied for the plot including Sourav Ganguly.
Sourav Ganguly got the plot for setting up the ICSE School.

Ashok Bhattacharya, then minister of urban development, told IANS that a committee led by the chief secretary then went through the applications and selected him.

But a Delhi-based educational council said its rules stipulated at least one acre has to be earmarked for an affiliated school.

Sourav Ganguly reportedly approached the state urban development minister Ashok Bhattacharya to allot him a bigger plot in CA block.

Then Sourav Ganguly was asked to surrender the lease for the BF block plot.

February 2008 –

Sourav Ganguly was given around-63 cottah (a little more than one acre) plot No. CA 222. block of Salt Lake.

While giving second new Plot to the Sourav Gangly WB government did not put out any advertisement.

Then Sourav Ganguly formed a Ganguly Education and Welfare Society to start work on the Wissen International School.

But plot NO.CA 222 block of salt lake was earmarked or reserved for the Collage.
There were two schools on two sides of the plot. While one of them had 1,400 students on its rolls, the other had 1,100.
There are two schools in the neighborhood (Hariyana Vidya Mandir and Salt Lake School) already, leading to traffic congestion.
Thus local residents objected to this procedure adopted and change and protests were started.
There were street corner meetings, conventions and even hunger strikes.

eminent painter Subhaprasanna told IANS that there was no need for any other school in the area and Moreover, Ganguly was given the plot at a very low rate. I think the present value of the plot would be around Rs.15 Crore

October 2009 –
an NGO Humanity, CA Block Citizens’ Association and two other organizations filed a Public Interest Litigation in the Calcutta High Court against the then Left Front government's procedure for allotment of the plot to Ganguly.
The petitioner contends that the land was handed over illegally. It was meant for a college not a school. It was allotted without any advertisement being published and violated the Urban Land Ceiling Act.

The petition was dismissed both by a single judge and the division bench of the high court.

The division bench had directed Ganguly to pay Rs.43.75 lakh for the land. He had earlier paid Rs.20 lakh as advance when the first plot was given to him.

The NGO had submitted that the state government violated all norms and procedures while allotting the prime land to the Sourav Ganguly.

16 September 2010 –
After that NGO challenged the order of High Court and filed appeal in the Supreme Court Then Supreme Court issued notice to State Government on September 16, 2010.
Supreme Court also took undertaking from Souravs advocate that no construction activities will be done by him on the disputed land and status quo would be maintained till further order.

May 26, 2011 –
After hearing the case Supreme Court cancelled the land allotment also directed the government to refund the money paid by Ganguly for the land.
a bench headed by Justice A K Ganguly directed Sourav Ganguly to surrender the land within two weeks and cancelled lease.

Reality views by sm –
May 26, 2011

Keyword Tag – Sourav Ganguly Salt lake land Allotment Quashed Cancelled