NEW DELHI: Defence Minister Sharad Pawar recently rejected the demand in the Lok Sabha for his resignation in view of the High Court Judgement in the case of allotment of prime real estate in Bombay to a housing society of top officials when he was Chief Minister of Maharashtra, The demand was made by Ram Kapse (BJP) and George Fernandes (JD) during zero hour Fernandes pleaded with the Speaker that he give a notice under rule 184 seeking leave against the Defence Minister. Speaker Shivraj Patil told Fernandes that he was not entertaining his notice as it had not yet reached him and also because the member had not informed the Minister about his move under Rule 353. Kapse said he had given notice under Rule 353 and sought the Minister’s resignation after rereading four passages from the High Court Judgement and arguing that the Judgement, which spoke of “non-application of mind” in the clearance of the amendment by the minister, in effect indicted Pawar.
Ex-Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar said Kapse was mixing up the court Judgement with his own interpretation, Pawar said the land allotment in question had been processed before he took over as Chief Minister. It was again processed by the official machinery and the Revenue Minister after his government took over. There was no conflict in the two opinions so the file was cleared in normal course, he said.
Article extracted from this publication >> Aug 14, 1992
