The Bombay High Court on Thursday, 9 May, expressed its displeasure over the proposed usage of a plot of land in Pune reserved as open space to construct a godown to store EVMs (electronic voting machines) and VVPAT (voter verifiable paper audit trail) machines.

A division bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Arif Doctor said what concerned it was not the change of use of the plot, but the manner in which it was being done by district authorities, without following any procedure mandated in law, sending a wrong signal in the process.

“We understand conducting elections is an overwhelming public purpose in our democracy, but even for this law should be followed,” CJ Upadhyaya observed, adding, “What else is lawlessness if we permit this.”

A Pune resident, Prashant Raul, filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the High Court, against the proposal to use the Metro Eco Park at Ravet in the western Maharashtra city for a godown to store EVMs and VVPAT machines.

Raul’s advocate Ronita Bhattacharya told the bench that the site was reserved as a recreational space for citizens and around 600 plants and trees have been planted there as part of compensatory plantation for the Pune Metro project.

As per the petition, in February, a letter was sent by the Maharashtra government to the district collector for usage of the open space and an adjacent plot (both belonging to the Pune Metropolitan Regional Development Authority) to construct a godown here.

The adjacent plot was already reserved for government purposes. The district collector then took possession of the two plots and began construction activity.