SC pulls up Gujarat minister Anandiben Patel for 'arrogance of power'

New Delhi, Jan 23: In a severe indictment of ministers in the Narendra Modi-led Gujarat government, the Supreme Court Thursday pulled up state Revenue Minister Anandiben Patel for displaying "arrogance of power" by "brushing" aside advice of senior officers and "dictating" allocation of land to a private company in breach of statutory provisions.

"She (Anandiben Patel) has ignored that howsoever high you may be, the law is above you," the court said, noting that she "brushed aside the objections of the secretaries merely because the chief minister's secretary had written a letter and because she was the minister concerned."

"Dictating him (collector of Bhuj) to act in a particular manner on the assumption by the minister that it is in the interest of the industrial development would lead to a breach of the mandate of the statute framed by the legislature," said a bench of Justice H.L.Gokhale and Justice J.Chelameswar in their judgment.