Noida land allotment case: Supreme Court upholds conviction of ex-UP chief secretary

Source – indianexpress.com

The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the conviction of former Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary Neera Yadav and IAS officer Rajiv Kumar in connection with the New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (NOIDA) land allotment case. The bench of Justices Kurian Joseph and R Banumathi, however, reduced their sentence from 3 to 2 years. Yadav and Kumar were held guilty by a CBI court in Ghaziabad in 2012, and this was upheld by the Allahabad High Court in February 2016 – against which they appealed to the SC.

“On appreciation of evidence and materials on record, both the trial court and High Court recorded concurrent findings that the appellants acted in clear abuse of position…The concurrent findings recorded by the courts below are well balanced and we do not find any reason warranting interference,” the SC said dismissing their appeals.
The case relating to illegalities in land allotment was taken up by the CBI on the orders of the apex court in January 1998. The agency filed an FIR against Yadav who was then serving as Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NOIDA. Kumar was the Deputy Chief Executive during the period.

Reducing their sentence, the court said, “…in the facts and circumstances of the case and considering that the occurrence was of the year 1994 about 23 years ago and that the appellant Rajiv Kumar had offered to surrender the plot and forgo refund and the fact that on account of conviction, his service and retrial benefits are in jeopardy, sentence of imprisonment imposed on the appellant Rajiv Kumar is reduced to two years and necessarily that of Neera Yadav is also to be reduced.”

The court rejected Yadav’s plea for concurrent sentences and held that she will have to serve the jail term in two separate cases consecutively. Kumar was tried only in one case along with Yadav, while the latter was tried in two.
The apex court order also referred to the menace of corruption. “Tackling corruption is going to be a priority task for the Government. The Government has been making constant efforts to deal with the problem of corruption. However, the constant legislative reforms and strict judicial actions have still not been able to completely uproot the deeply rooted evil of corruption. This is the area where the Government needs to be seen taking unrelenting, stern and uncompromising step. Leaders should think of introducing good and effective leadership at the helm of affairs; only then benefits of liberalisation and various programmes, welfare schemes and programmes would reach the masses…Due to the uncontrolled spread of consumerism and fall in moral values, corruption has taken deep roots in the society. What is needed is a re-awakening and recommitment to the basic values of tradition rooted in ancient and external wisdom. Unless people rise against bribery and corruption, society can never be rid of this disease…”, it added.