Supreme Court favours audit of defence land grants

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court expressed grave concern on Wednesday over defence land being granted to private individuals within cantonments, as well as nearly 10,000 acres of land allegedly encroached upon.

"If civilians are given land within the cantonment, the military would have no control as to who is residing there and carrying out which activities. This is concerning. Huge lands inside cantonments have been granted to civilians who have built palatial houses," said a bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan , for NGO Common Cause, said the defence ministry is not giving proper details of the defence land under encroachment throughout the country, which in one estimate exceeds 10,000 acres.

The bench asked additional solicitor general Aishwarya Bhati to ask the defence ministry whether it is open to audit of defence land by involving officials from revenue department as well as CAG. It also asked Bhati to ascertain in two weeks the progress in digitization of defence land records .