Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh): The High Court’s bench at Indore has temporarily banned the sale of 59 shops built in Shri Mahakal Lok. The court will hear the matter in the week beginning February 13. Till then the process of the auction will go on, but will not be finalised.
The tender auction was challenged in the High Court by petitioners Suresh Chandra Yogi, Mahendra Yogi, Ravi Shankar Tomar, Shyam Chandra Yogi, Abhishek Tiwari, Madhusudan Sharma, Prabhat Sharma, Niranjan Aaronya and Surendra Kumar Sharma, residents of Mahakal Marg.
All of them used to operate shops in front of Shri Mahakaleshwar Temple and their shops were removed for the Shri Mahakaleshwar Expansion and Beatification Project. The then collector, Ujjain Municipal Corporation (UMC) and Mahakaleshwar Temple Management Committee (MTMC) had assured these people that the shops to be built in Shri Mahakal Lok would be given to them on priority at cost price. But no preference was given to these shopkeepers in the recently issued tender.
On the contrary, the Smart City administration conducted an auction through tender, in which a condition was placed to give the shop to the highest bidder. The same was challenged through a petition. Collector, MTMC, UMC commissioner and chairman of Smart City, SDM Kothi Palace, CEO Ujjain Development Authority, Razdan Parivar Charitable Trust and Sai Foundation India were the parties.
High Court judge Pranay Verma after seeing the facts of the petition, has given a stay of three weeks on the auction of shops. The judge has sought a reply from the concerned parties by February 13. Till then the process of the auction will continue but the sale of shops will be finalised only after the order of the court.
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