The Calcutta High Court on Monday directed former Indian cricket team captain Sourav Ganguly to pay Rs 43.75 lakh for a plot of land in posh Salt Lake town which was alloted to him by the West Bengal Government.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice M S Shah and Justice P C Ghose directed 37-year-old Ganguly to pay the amount within six weeks, failing which the lease shall stand terminated.
A PIL against allotment of the plot to Ganguly was filed in the High Court in October last year by the CA Block Citizens' Association and others seeking its cancellation on the ground that norms and rules were violated in leasing out the 4151-metre land to the cricketer.
It was alleged that after the hand over, Ganguly had made a request to the Urban Development Department for allotment of the plot in question in CA block in place of an earlier BF block plot, which was complied with.
A school--Wissen International School-- was being set up on the plot by a group of which Sourav is a promoter, the petition said.
The division bench, however, observed in its order that there was no arbitrariness in the action of the state in allotment of the land to Ganguly.
But Ganguly would have to pay a premium of Rs 43.75 lakh in respect of the subsequent plot of land at the present rate, the court directed.
