AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat high court on Wednesday ordered the state govt to take possession of Surat’s Agriculture Produce Market Committee’s (APMC) five-star hotel constructed on the market yard’s land. It also ordered a public auction of the property and directed authorities to deposit the amount to state’s market funds.
The bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Aniruddha Mayee further ordered action against erring officials and APMC members responsible for the construction of the luxurious hotel, which violated the aims and objectives of the market yard, for which the govt had acquired about 14,000 sq mt land.
The HC ordered the director of Agriculture, Marketing and Rural Finance to conduct inspection of the Krushi Bazar on allegations by a petitioner that the shops in the mall were leased for the sale of items like jewellery and clothes. The HC ordered the closure of all activities in the mall that were not for the welfare of the farmers. The HC sought the inspection report by next month.
This issue had reached the HC in 2014 with the petitioner accusing Surat APMC of constructing a mall and a five-star hotel on 20,000 sq mt land and shifting the market yard to another place. The govt had acquired lands for the APMC at both places. The APMC constructed the hotel by spending Rs 90 crore and leased it to a private group — Hotel Shilpi’s Pvt Ltd — to run it. However, the HC had stayed the arrangement.
When the HC ordered the govt to take possession of the hotel and put it to auction, the hospitality group expressed concerns about its investment. The judges said that the APMC would have to pay the entire amount back to it with interest.
