Mr. Prakash Jha's predicament is his own and he is capable of handling it. However, there is a bigger issue at hand. The issue relates to the action of the government.  Now the question is, can a decision taken by the government be voided? Of course the High Court is the interpreter of all government actions but if it keeps voiding government decisions on PIL petitions, probably,  it will have to void a lot of decisions. It appears that Mr. Jha did his due diligence before he approached the Bihar government for the allotment of the land; and the government approved it to promote the industry. In Patna where the land is in short supply and most of the prime land is owned by the government, the businessmen can only go the government for the allotment of land. In furtherance of industry,  the cost of the land whether small or big should not be the factor; and probably it was not a factor in Mr. Jha's case. Nevertheless, if the court was not satisfied with the value of the land after considering the viability of the project, instead of voiding the allotment, it could have had it appraised to arrive at its true value. Such an assessment would have been fair to Mr. Jha if he were still interested in proceeding with his plan. Another question that comes to mind is that the ruling of the high court will be precedent setting. It will open the door for more PIL litigation because not all government decisions are based on equitable justification. Therefore,  the High Court has to be more judicious when it rules on Mr. Jha's case again.

 

Nawal Pandey, USA