<p>The Supreme Court on Saturday said a day has come now to do away with allotment of government largess, particularly plots, on the basis of discretionary quota as this inevitably leads to corruption, nepotism and favouritism. </p>.<p>"Even if guidelines are issued to be followed while allotment of the plots under the discretionary quota and it is found that many a time they are hardly followed or are manipulated to suit the particular circumstances. Therefore, the best thing is to do away with such discretionary quota and allotments of the public properties/plots must be through public auction by and large," a bench of Justices M R Shah and B V Nagarathna said.</p>.<p>The top court said public interest should be the prime guiding principle in allotment of public properties.</p>.<p>It said even in the case where the policy decision is taken to allot the plots to a particular class like the downtrodden class etc in that case also the guidelines must be strictly followed and the allotment must reflect the fair play and non¬arbitrariness and should have objective criteria or procedure.</p>.<p>"When a democratic government in exercise of its discretion selects the recipients for its largess, then discretion should be exercised objectively, rationally, intelligibly, fairly and in a non¬arbitrary manner and it should not be subjective and according to the private opinion and/or the whims and fancies of the persons in power and/or the public servants," the court emphasised.</p>.<p>The bench allowed a petition filed by the Odisha government and cleared decks for prosecution of three officials for misuse of their power in surreptitiously distributing prime lands at a commercial complex in Bhubaneswar at throw away price to their own family members and relatives.</p>.<p>The court set aside the High Court's judgement quashing the criminal proceedings, saying it embarked upon examining evidences as if it was conducting the mini-trial. It said action has to be initiated against the officials, prima facie responsible for the illegality in the allotment of the plots to the relatives or family members resulting in huge loss to the Bhubaneswar Development Authority and the public exchequer.</p>.<p><strong>Check out latest DH videos here</strong></p>
<p>The Supreme Court on Saturday said a day has come now to do away with allotment of government largess, particularly plots, on the basis of discretionary quota as this inevitably leads to corruption, nepotism and favouritism. </p>.<p>"Even if guidelines are issued to be followed while allotment of the plots under the discretionary quota and it is found that many a time they are hardly followed or are manipulated to suit the particular circumstances. Therefore, the best thing is to do away with such discretionary quota and allotments of the public properties/plots must be through public auction by and large," a bench of Justices M R Shah and B V Nagarathna said.</p>.<p>The top court said public interest should be the prime guiding principle in allotment of public properties.</p>.<p>It said even in the case where the policy decision is taken to allot the plots to a particular class like the downtrodden class etc in that case also the guidelines must be strictly followed and the allotment must reflect the fair play and non¬arbitrariness and should have objective criteria or procedure.</p>.<p>"When a democratic government in exercise of its discretion selects the recipients for its largess, then discretion should be exercised objectively, rationally, intelligibly, fairly and in a non¬arbitrary manner and it should not be subjective and according to the private opinion and/or the whims and fancies of the persons in power and/or the public servants," the court emphasised.</p>.<p>The bench allowed a petition filed by the Odisha government and cleared decks for prosecution of three officials for misuse of their power in surreptitiously distributing prime lands at a commercial complex in Bhubaneswar at throw away price to their own family members and relatives.</p>.<p>The court set aside the High Court's judgement quashing the criminal proceedings, saying it embarked upon examining evidences as if it was conducting the mini-trial. It said action has to be initiated against the officials, prima facie responsible for the illegality in the allotment of the plots to the relatives or family members resulting in huge loss to the Bhubaneswar Development Authority and the public exchequer.</p>.<p><strong>Check out latest DH videos here</strong></p>
