'Brazen Misuse Of Power To Perpetuate Personal Gains': Allahabad HC Castigates Ex-UP Minister Azam Khan In 'Jauhar University' Case

While DISMISSING the challenge made to the cancellation of the lease of Maulana Mohamad Ali Jauhar University's land in the state's Rampur District, the Allahabad High Court strongly criticized the acts of the then Cabinet Minister and Senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan for misusing his position to perpetuate personal gains.The judgment, passed by a division bench comprising Justice Manoj Kumar Gupta and Justice Kshitij Shailendra, emphasises that the grant of lease of Government land to Jauhar Trust was an outcome of "abuse and misuse of power" by the then Cabinet Minister as he acted "without scruples" and under influence of the public office he held, succeeded in "circumventing the law"."This Court is fully satisfied that the creation/ grant of lease of the Research Institute in favour the petitioner trust was dehors the provisions of law and a result of gross abuse of the public office held by the Hon'ble Minister. There was a direct conflict of interest and the entire proceedings, culminating in the grant of lease in favour of the petitioner trust were void ab initio," the Court observed in its operative part of the 70-page judgment passed on Monday.The case in briefIn the year 2004, the state government decided to open a government training and research institute in Rampur in the name of Maulana Mohd. Ali Jauhar Training and Research Institute to provide a fillip to Urdu, Arabi and Farsi languages. For the said purposes, a total of 13140 square meters of land was acquired by the state government and thereafter, in 2013-14, a decision - which was subsequently challenged- was taken to lease out the Research Institute in favour of the former Cabinet Minister's trust (Mohammad Ali Jauhar Trust/petitioner trust) under the provisions of the Government Grants Act, 1895. In furtherance of the said decision, a lease deed was executed between the Governor of the State and the petitioner trust in February 2015. The said lease was granted for 33 years on receipt of a premium of Rs.1,000/- and at an annual rent of Rs.100/- with an option for renewal of the lease for two further terms of 33 years each, the maximum period of the lease being 99 years. By way of the said transaction, the settlement of leasehold rights in the land and building of the Research Institute was shifted in favour of the petitioner-trust.In this entire process, many objections from state ministries were raised, including an objection that a government institution cannot be affiliated with a private institution/trust, however, it was ultimately decided by the State Government that the Research Institute would be affiliated with Mohammad Ali Jauhar Trust. Thereafter, Rampur Public School was also established on the said land.In 2017, with the coming of a new government in the state, certain complaints were made before it regarding the functioning of the petitioner trust and the Government constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) for the said purposes.The SIT looked into the entire turn of events starting from 2005 to 2017 and it came up with a case against Khan that he misused and abused his position to usurp highly valuable State land and the building of the Research Institute built from the State exchequer. It was alleged that State land and buildings were misappropriated in the garb of advancing the objectives of the Training and Research Institute, which caused huge financial losses to the State ExchequerIt was the case of the SIT that the trust, with which the research institute was affiliated, was headed by Khan himself and the petitioner trust (Jauhar), instead of advancing the objects of the Research Institute, established a CBSE-recognised school in the building of the research institute. It was also claimed that the Managing Committee of the said school was comprised mainly of the family members of the Cabinet Minister and that the Rampur Public School was established over the land and building without approval from the Cabinet or competent authority. Further stand of the SIT was that Khan, being the Cabinet Minister himself determined and fixed the premium of the entire land and building at Rs.1000/- and annual lease rent of Rs.100/- by misusing and abusing his position, causing financial loss to the State exchequer to the extent of around Rs.20.44 croresAgainst this backdrop of the finding of the SIT, the State Government, in January 2023, decided to terminate the lease and also the Office Memorandumwhereby the previous Government had let out the Research Institute in favour of the petitioner trust. Challenging this decision, Khan's trust moved the HC.Arguments put forthBefore the HC, It was the primary contention of the Tust that neither any show cause notice was issued to the petitioner nor any opportunity of hearing was ever afforded by the respondents to the petitioner before passing the impugned order terminating the grant of lease, office memorandum, lease deed and correction lease deed.On the other hand, it was...

'Brazen Misuse Of Power To Perpetuate Personal Gains': Allahabad HC Castigates Ex-UP Minister Azam Khan In 'Jauhar University' Case

Sparsh Upadhyay

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