Former Indian cricket player Yusuf Pathan. File.
| Photo Credit: DEBASISH BHADURI
Newly elected Trinamool Congress MP from West Bengal Yusuf Pathan has moved the Gujarat High Court against a notice issued by the Vadodara Municipal Corporation asking him to remove alleged encroachment on a piece of land belonging to the civic body.
In his petition, Mr. Pathan contended that since the issue has been persisting for more than a decade and the plot has been in his possession, the civic body should have issued a show-cause notice giving him the opportunity to respond, rather than a direct order to clear the encroachment and vacate the plot.
The former cricketer submitted that the civic body, in the past decade, had never sought anything from him over the issue of the land plot that adjoins his residence.
His lawyer, Yatin Oza, submitted that the Gujarat government had rejected the civic body’s proposal to sell the land to him in 2014. He argued that the State government lacked the authority to deny the sale because the land belonged to the civic body, not the State government. The next hearing is scheduled for Friday.
It may be noted that Mr. Pathan had been fielded by the Trinamool Congress as its candidate from the Baharampur Lok Sabha seat in West Bengal against Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. Mr Pathan defeated Mr. Choudhury.