Today was the first day of the final hearing of the two public interest litigations (PILs) filed by Pune corporator Nitin Jagtap and freelance journalist Vijay Kumbhar.

While Kumbhar's counsel Vinod Bobde argued for over three hours today, CM's counsel K K Venugopal and state government's counsel Additional Solicitor General D Y Chandrachud made submissions in the afternoon. The division bench of Chief Justice M B Shah and Y S Jahagirdar will now hear the two PILs on November 4. The packed courtroom today was indicative of the tremendous public interest aroused by the case.

According to Bobde the PMC officials were at the service of the CM, which was whythe general body of the corporation was not consulted before approving the dereservation. It was surprising to note that the municipality explored such options, as would enable Vyas to develop the plot, Bobde said, adding that the private developer's interests were given precedence over the general public interest. He said since the commissioner knew that dereservation of the plot was not within the townplanning rules, he should not have succumbed to political pressure. The commissioner could have easily denied dereservation of the plot. However, he backed out since the beneficiary was the CM's son-in-law, Bobde alleged. Bobde also alleged that CM was personally involved in the illegality. ``He cannot get away from the responsibility by merely stating that he ordered action `as the law permitted'. How can he expect the law to be followed when the decision itself was illegal?'' Bobde added.

Venugopal, however, argued that a plot of 10,000 square metres was too big for a primary school, especially since sevenschools already existed in the vicinity. Therefore, it was decided by the corporation to shift the reservation to another locality. Moreover, the corporation also served public interest by getting an alternative free plot from Vyas in the suburb of Mundhwa.

Chandrachud reitearted that dereservation of the plot was justified considering that seven primary schools already existed in the locality, of which two were on the adjoining property. He said contrary to Bobde's contention, if the corporation had followed section 37 of the Maharashtra Regional Town Planning Act, it would have lost the plot without accruing any benefit. But now the PMC has three-pronged benefit: an alternative plot of Rs 33 lakh; construction cost of the school at Mundhwa, and refund of Rs 19 lakh paid as compensation to landowners of the Prabhat Road plot in 1983.