Madhya Pradesh HC dismisses plea opposing land allotment to Ramdev's Patanjali Ayurveda, fines petitioner Rs 10,000

Indore: The Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court on Tuesday dismissed a PIL seeking cancellation of allotment of land by the state government to Yoga guru Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurveda. [caption id=“attachment_2924362” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Baba Ramdev. Reuters[/caption] The 40-acre plot of land in the Pithampur industrial area of Dhar district was allotted to the company at Rs 25 lakh per acre in September 2016 and the firm had proposed to invest Rs 500 crore to set up a food processing unit there. A bench of Justice PK Jaiswal and Justice Sunil Kumar on Tuesday rejected the PIL, filed by local social worker Tapan Bhattacharya, and fined him Rs 10,000 for submitting a baseless petition. The court also ordered that the fine, after realisation, should be deposited in the relief fund for flood-hit Kerala. In his PIL, Bhattacharya had alleged that the land was given at cheap rates to provide illegal benefits to Patanjali. The PIL also claimed that the state’s industrial policy, rules and regulations were not followed. The state government had argued that the land was allotted by the state Cabinet in accordance with rules.