agencies

New Delhi, Jan 12 (UNI) In a major setback to arbitrary allottees of petrol pumps, LPG gas agencies and kerosene oil depots, the Supreme Court today upheld the recommendations made by court appointed committee suggesting the cancellations of 297 such allotments.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal, Justices C K Thakker and R V Raveendaran granted three weeks' time to the allottees to vacate the sites as their allotment stood cancelled.

The illegal allotments were exposed in a report published in a newspaper on July 12, 2002.

The beneficiaries included Congress leaders Girja Vyas, Motilal Vohra, Santosh Mohan Dev, S Bangarappa, Margeret Alva, Suresh Kalmadi and Oscar Fernendez, BJP leaders and workers of the two parties.

The allotments to the BJP leaders were made by the previous Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government and those to Congress leaders were recommended by some senior leaders of the party.

In all 3850 allotmnets were made January 2000 onwards. Later on, the then NDA government cancelled all of them following allegations of favouritism and arbitrariness.

Some of the allottees approached the Supreme Court against the government's order of cancellation. The apex court stayed the government order and appointed a 2-member committee comprising former Supreme Court Judge S C Aggarwal and former Delhi High Court Judge P K Bahri, which submitted its report saying 297 allotments were illegal.

The Supreme Court today lifted the stay and accepted the recommendations of the committee.

In all, 409 cases were scrutinised by the court appointed committee. Out of these 297 allotments have been cancelled.

The remaining cases will be placed before the new Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and forwarded to an appropriate bench for being heard on merits.

UNI