Shiv Bhagwan Rameshwar Lal Charitable Trust v. Atul Bajaj
Case brief
What is this about?
Chhattisgarh High Court (Bilaspur) review petitions REVP No. 85 of 2025 (auction purchasers — Sourabh & Shishir Sonchhatra, Rupesh Sharaf, Ajay Kumar Jaiswal, Guruvinder Singh & Sumit Kour Bhatia, Blaveer Kour Bhatia, Amandeep Singh, Arvind Kumar & Meenal Bhanushali, Deepak Agrawal) and REVP No. 86 of 2025 (Shiv Bhagwan Rameshwar Lal Charitable Trust through trustee Kamal Bajaj, with Chirag & Ananya Bajaj) against the judgment dated 02.12.2024 in WA Nos. 146/2023 & 474/2023 allowing the writ appeals. Dismissed 04.07.2025 (NAFR) by bench of Ramesh Sinha, Chief Justice (author) and Amitendra Kishore Prasad, Judge: the Supreme Court had already dismissed the review petitioners' SLP (C) No. 859/2025 on 16.01.2025, endorsing (under Article 136) the Division Bench's view that the disputed land measuring 2.38 acres vests in the State free from all encumbrances as part of the College premises, and permitting the auction purchaser to seek refund of any deposit; the argument that the merger principle does not apply was held misconceived and misleading. Dismissed, no costs. Counsel: Santosh Tripathi, Senior Advocate (assisted by Gary Mukhopadhyay) for REVP 85 petitioners; Anuj P. Agarwala for REVP 86 petitioners; Anurag Dayal Shrivastava for respondents 1–4; Prafull Bharat, Advocate General (assisted by S.S. Baghel) for the State. Themes: review jurisdiction; merger doctrine; dismissal of SLP; vesting of charitable/public trust land in the State; auction-purchaser refund.