Sabarmati Redevelopment: Gujarat High Court Rejects Funds Misuse Allegations as ‘Misconceived’

Allegations that hundreds of crores of rupees from the public exchequer were misused during the rehabilitation of Mahatma Gandhi's Sabarmati Ashram residents are "apprehensions without any substance" and cannot justify a judicial inquiry, the Gujarat High Court ruled while dismissing a PIL challenging aspects of the Sabarmati Ashram redevelopment project.

The division bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Pranav Trivedi rejected a petition filed by Devrajbhai Tulsibhai Patel, a practicing advocate from Ahmedabad, who alleged misappropriation of government funds and irregularities in the rehabilitation process of families residing in the Ashram precincts. The petitioner had also sought the removal of the Manav Sadhna Trust from the Gandhi Ashram premises, claiming it was illegally operating under the name and address of the original Sabarmati Harijan Ashram Trust.

Court found the petition to be misconceived and lacking substance. “None of the alleged illegal occupants or encroachers were impleaded in the petition,” the court noted, adding that no “roving inquiry” could be initiated merely on unverified claims.

The court held that all major aspects of the redevelopment project had already been adjudicated in a prior judgment dated September 8, 2022, in Writ Petition (PIL) No. 137 of 2021. That decision had upheld the plan to expand the Ashram from its current 5-acre core to a 55-acre heritage campus, including museums, educational facilities, and rehabilitated housing for over 260 ashram families.

The State, in its affidavits, had assured the court that the redevelopment would not disturb the original five-acre Ashram where Gandhiji lived and that the Gandhian ideals would be reflected and amplified, not diluted. The High Court took these assurances on record, stating it “trusts that the project would be implemented in the right perspective.”

As to the petitioner’s claim that crores had been wrongly paid to unauthorized occupants under the guise of rehabilitation, the court held that such allegations required proper parties to be impleaded and could not be evaluated in the abstract.

The petitioner had also asked the court to bar any trust other than the original Harijan Ashram Trust from operating within the premises. This too was rejected, with the court pointing out that the redevelopment is being carried out in consultation with multiple Gandhi-affiliated institutions, all of which are part of the governing council overseeing the project.

The Supreme Court had also earlier dismissed a Special Leave Petition challenging the 2022 judgment, terming the apprehensions raised as “mere speculation.”

Case Title: Devrajbhai Tulsibhai Patel vs. State of Gujarat And Others