PANJIM: The High Court of Bombay at Goa has ordered that the property belonging to Serula Comunidade in Porvorim at CHOGM road, in which Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar and his brother had secured a major share, be restored.
The order comes as a major setback to Parulekar. Earlier in the week, Porvorim MLA Rohan Khaunte had filed a case with the Lokayukta against Parulekar in the beach cleaning scam.
The HC direction came following a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by NCP leader Trajano D’Mello, where it has also asked the government authorities and Comunidade to stop illegal occupation immediately.
The Court observed that the construction in Serula Comunidade land at Porvorim is illegal and has no legal grant in its favour. The newly-constructed shops are completely illegal and also the process of rehabilitation, court has observed.
The Court further observed saying, “The concerned authorities have granted the essential services such as electricity, etc, to the concerned construction when no occupancy certificate was granted by the Panchayat.”
Speaking to the media, D’Mello said that the Tourism Minister has misused his official position to carry out illegalities and pressurise government officers.
D’Mello and Peter Vincent Alfonso, in their petition, had raised issues relating to the minister’s plot and also the Serula Comunidade structure. The petition had sought a direction to the State authorities, particularly the administrator of communidades, to attach the shops, flats and godown in the building and to auction them, on the grounds that provisions in the Code of Comunidades had not been followed.
The petition had also questioned how the Tourism Minister could be eligible for space in the new building for rehabilitation when the minister is trying to get the encroachment regularised.
However, the court said, “The State authorities have failed in their statutory duties to ensure that the law is above all, as it is for them to ensure that the provisions of law are duly followed in all circumstances.”
It is also the contention of the petitioners that if the plot of land allotted to the Tourism Minister is to be regularised then how the Comunidade could decides to allot space in the new building to Parulekar or his brother. The petitioners had also challenged the allotment of flats/shops by the earlier Comunidade body.
