Jammu, December 2: Senior Congress leader and former revenue minister Raman Bhalla has landed in trouble as Justice Javed Iqbal Wani of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court here on Wednesday directed the court’s registry to list before the division bench a writ petition highlighting the construction of his palatial house allegedly on State land at Village Deeli (Marble Market).
When the petition came up for hearing, Sheikh Shakeel advocate for the petitioner Prof S K Bhalla submitted that the then revenue minister had construced a palatial house on a portion of state land bearing Khasra No. 781. More than 154 kanals of land under that Khasra number was transferred by the then state government to Jammu Development Authority in 2004, but JDA and revenue authorities deliberately allowed that portion of prime land valuing crores of rupees to be encroached upon by land mafia, he added, pointing out that a division bench had on October 9 last declared the Roshni Act as void ab initio and directed CBI to investigate “this loot of prime JDA land’’.
After considering the submissions of Sheikh Shakeel advocate, Justice Javed Iqbal Wani directed the registry to list this petition accordingly after verifying the aforesaid facts from the records.
