The Supreme Court Thursday cancelled the allotment of a 1.2-acre plot to cricketer Sourav Gangula in Kolkata’s Salt Lake Sector 5 area, saying the “discretionary quota” allotment by the state’s former Left Front government for a proposed school did not “meet the requirement of the law”.
The cancellation was ordered by a two-judge bench. Incidentally, the judge writing the verdict shares the cricketer’s surname. Justice Ashok Kumar Ganguly said he was a great fan of Sourav’s but “as a judge, I have different duties to discharge”.
Justices Ganguly and G.S. Singhvi set aside the April 1, 2009 lease deed registered in Sourav’s name, and directed the cricketer to hand over possession in two weeks. The state was also directed to refund the mon-ey invested by the cricketer.