By IANS,
Shimla : The Himachal Pradesh High Court Wednesday directed the state government to maintain the status quo on the land allotted to yoga guru Baba Ramdev, the possession of which it has taken back.
The court order comes less than a week after possession of the prime land was taken back as the government found violations of statutory provisions in its allotment by the previous Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in 2010.
Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Yogpeeth trust has constructed structures on the land in Solan district and these were to be inaugurated by the yoga guru Wednesday.
Taking up the petition of Patanjali Yogpeeth, a division bench of Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Kuldip Singh directed the government to maintain the status quo.
The government Feb 22 took back possession of a chunk of land allotted to the yoga guru for setting up his Patanjali Yogpeeth’s branch.
Challenging the action of the government, Patanjali Yogpeeth moved the high court Feb 25, alleging that the state’s decision was illegal, arbitrary and in violation of natural justice.
The petitioner said the lease deed was validly given to the trust and that it spent about Rs.11 crore for land development.
The land originally belonged to the erstwhile royal family of Patiala, to which former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh belongs.
The BJP government gave the land to the yoga guru in 2010 for a one-time lease payment of Rs.17 lakh for 99 years at a token annual fee of Re.1.