An order by a lower court, granting relief to Meghalaya's Additional Advocate General S P Mahanta in an alleged land grab last year, was today reversed and set aside.
The court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Baphindalin Giri, who heard both the parties, reversed and set aside an order passed by Assistant Deputy Commissioner Febroneus Silkam Sangma in February 10 last year.
The February order had dismissed the case against the additional advocate general, stating that the title suit filed by the plaintiff "falsely" and "vexatiously by suppression of necessary facts" was with a view to harass the defendant.
The case had cost Mahanta his job, but he was reinstated after Sangma dismissed the case in favour of Mahanta last year.
The complainant Australia-based T N Bhattacharjee had alleged that Mahanta forged his signature to grab a 14,285 square feet plot in Lower Lachumiere, considered a prime area in the city.
He along with counsels B K Singh and N Bharali had also filed a writ petition in the Shillong Bench of the Gauhati High Court in 2009.
Reacting to the court order, Bhattacharjee told PTI, "I am excited that justice prevails."
Meanwhile, leading women NGO leader Agnes Kharshiing, who backed the NRI, demanded that Mahanta be dropped stating that the government could not appoint a tainted lawyer to top posts.
