A division bench of the High Court comprising Chief Justice M B Shah and Justice Y S Jahagirdar however admitted Shelar's petition challenging a state government order restoring land acquired for the Nashik-based Maharashtra Engineering Research Institute (MERI) to its original owners.

In his prayer, Shelar had urged the court to direct the Anti-Corruption Bureau to file a case against Rane under the Prevention of Corruption Act, contending that the order passed by the minister to restore the land was bad in law and with malafide intention.

In 1963, the state government had acquired 400 acres of land for MERI at Nashik. The farmers were compensated as per the provisions of law. In 1993, some of the farmers approached the district collector, asking that theunutilised land be returned to them.

The farmers submitted that as per the provisions of an order passed by the government, if the acquired land was not utilised within three years and if it was not required for any other public purpose, then the same should be returned to the original owners at a price, which should not be more than double the price of the original compensation.

The plea however was rejected by the Nashik Collector, following which the farmers filed an appeal before Rane. The minister ordered that in addition to the 176 acres of land on which some construction had already taken place, MERI should retain an additional 50 acres of land and that the remaining land be restored to the original owners.

Challenging Rane's order, Shelar alleged that it was passed with malafide intention and named Rane, along with the Revenue secretary and the Nashik Collector, as a respondent in his petition.

Appearing for the minister, counsel Dhananjay Chandrachud urged the court that Rane's name bedropped from the list of respondents since the order was a quasi judicial verdict in his capacity as a Revenue Minister and that it was passed after taking into consideration the facts brought before him by the farmers. The court accepted Chandrachud's plea and dropped Rane from the list of respondents.