Ahmedabad, Jun 8 No one can do this, the Gujarat High Court said on Monday, questioning how former cricketer and TMC MP Yusuf Pathan occupied public land in Vadodara without paying a single penny, even after the state government had refused the allotment proposal.
A division bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice DN Ray orally remarked that the appellant be prepared to pay damages for the use and occupation of the said property, and posted the matter for the next hearing on June 15.
Pathan, originally from Vadodara, represents the Baharampur Lok Sabha constituency in West Bengal.
"This was only a proposal for allotment which had been sent to the state government, which refused sanction. Just answer how you could occupy this plot? This is sufficient for us to reject. No one can do this," Chief Justice Agarwal said while addressing Pathan's lawyer, Shalin Mehta.
The bench orally asked Mehta how his client could occupy the plot even if there was no allotment in his favour and without paying a single penny of the allotment money.
The bench heard Pathan's appeal challenging a single judge's order passed in August last year, which called him an "encroacher" on the government land.
The HC asked orally whether the plot had been vacated, and if not, how much time Pathan needed to vacate it, warning of imposing costs.
The bench said that Pathan acted on the VMC (Vadodara Municipal Corporation) standing committee's proposal, initially forwarded to the general body and later sent to the state government, which rejected it.
Pathan occupied the land even before the allotment process was completed, and the plot was actually allotted to his possession, it said.
"How could you take possession of the plot? Because that fact takes you outside of the court. Because anybody who is in possession of a public plot without completion of formality, no indulgence can be granted to such a person," the bench said.
The high court in September 2025 rejected Pathan's petition challenging the state government's notice rejecting the VMC's proposal to allot a 978-metre plot next to his house in Vadodara without auction.
